
Oass UAlAcA. 

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



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PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 



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Pathfinders of the West 

BEING 

THE THRILLING STORY OF THE ADVENTURES 

OF THE MEN WHO DISCOVERED 

THE GREAT NORTHWEST 

RADISSON, LA VERENDRYE, LEWIS 
AND CLARK 



BY 



A. C. LAUT 

w 

AUTHOR OK " I.OKDS OK THK NORTH," "HERALDS 
OK EMl'lRE," "STORY OF THE TRAPPER" 



ILLUSTRATIONS BY 

REMINGTON, GOODWIN, MARCH AND 

AND OTHERS 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 
1904 

Ail rights reserved 



1 



LIBRARY of C 


ONGSESS 


Two Cupisu 


liecejvuu 


NOV 2il 


I9U4 


CLASS «- XXc, Noi 

/02. 2-32 

COPY B. 



Copyright, 1904, 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1904. 



NortoooD iltfgg 
Gushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



\ 



.^^ 



S' 



A 



WiLDwooD Place, Wassaic, N.Y. 
August 15, 1904. 
Dear Mr. Sli.te : 

A few years ago, when I was a resident of the Far West and tried 
to trace the paths of early explorers, I found that all authorities — 
first, second, and third rate — -alike referred to one source of informa- 
tion for their facts. The name in the tell-tale footnote was invariably 
your own. 

While I assume all responsibility for upsetting the apple cart of 
established opinions by this book, will you permit me to dedicate it 
to vou as a slight token of esteem to the greatest living French- 
Canadian historian, from whom we have all borrowed and to whom 
few of us have rendered the tribute due ? 

Faithfully, 

AGNES C. LAUT. 

Mr. Benjamin Sulte, 

President Royal Society, 

Ottawa, Canada. 



THE GREAT NORTHWEST 

I love thee, O thou great, wild, nigged land 
Of fenceless field and snowy mountain height, 
Uprearing crests all starry-diademed 
Above the silver clouds ! A sea of light 
Swims o'er thy prairies, shimmering to the sight 
A rolling world of glossy yellow wheat 
That runs before the wind in billows bright 
As waves beneath the beat of unseen feet. 
And ripples far as eye can see — as far and fleet ! 

Here's chances for every man ! The hands that work 
Become the hands that rule ! Thy harvests yield 
Onlv to him who toils ; and hands that shirk 
Must emptv go ! And here the hands that wield 
The sceptre work ! O glorious golden field ! 
O bounteous, plenteous land of poet's dream ! 
O'er thv broad plain the cloudless sun ne'er wheeled 
But some dull heart was brightened by its gleam 
To seize on hope and realize life's highest dream ! 

Thy roaring tempests sweep from out the north — 
Ten thousand cohorts on the wind's wild mane — 
No hand can check thy frost-steeds bursting forth 
To gambol madly on the storm-swept plain ! 
Thy hissing snow-drifts wreathe their serpent train. 
With stormy laughter shrieks the joy of might — 
Or lifts, or falls, or wails upon the wane — 
vii 



viii THE GREAT NORTHWEST 

Thy tempests sweep their stormy trail of white 

Across the deepening drifts — and man must die, or fight ! 

Yes, man must sink or fight, be strong or die ! 
That is thy law, O great, free, strenuous West ! 
The weak thou wilt make strong till he defy 
Thy bufFetings ; but spacious prairie breast 
Will never nourish weakling as its guest ! 
He must grow strong or die ! Thou givest all 
An equal chance — to work, to do their best — - 
Free land, free hand — thy son must work or fall 
Grow strong or die ! That message shrieks the storm- wind's 
call! 

And so I love thee, great, free, rugged land 

Of cloudless summer days, with west-wind croon. 

And prairie flowers all dewy-diademed, 

And twilights long, with blood-red, low-hung moon 

And mountain peaks that glisten white each noon 

Through purple haze that veils the western sky — - 

And well I know the meadow-lark's far rune 

As up and down he lilts and circles high 

And sings sheer joy — be strong, be free ; be strong or die ! 



Foreword 

The question will at once occur why no mention 
is made of Marquette and Jolliet and La Salle in a 
work on the pathfinders of the West. The simple 
answer is — they were not pathfinders. Contrary to 
the notions imbibed at school, and repeated in all his- 
tories of the West, Marquette, Jolliet, and La Salle 
did 7iot discover the vast region beyond the Great 
Lakes. Twelve years before these explorers had 
thought of visiting the land which the French hunter 
designated as the Pa\s d' en Haul, the West had 
already been discovered by the most intrepid voxageurs 
that France produced, — men whose wide-ranging ex- 
plorations exceeded the achievements of Cartier and 
Champlain and La Salle put together. 

It naturally rouses resentment to find that names 
revered for more than two centuries as the first ex- 
plorers of the Great Northwest must give place to a 
name almost uiiktiown. It seems impossible that at 
this late date history should have to be rewritten. 
Such is the fact if ive 'would have our history true. 
Not Marquette, Jolliet, and La Salle discovered the 
West, but two poor adventurers, who sacrificed all 
earthlv possessions to the enthusiasm for discoverv, 



X FOREWORD 

and incurred such bitter hostility from the govern- 
ments of France and England that their names have 
been hounded to infamy. These were Sieur Pierre 
Esprit Radisson and Sieur Medard Chouart Groseil- 
lers, fur traders of Three Rivers, Quebec/ 

The explanation of the long oblivion obscuring the 
fame of these two men is very simple. Radisson and 
Groseillers defied, first New France, then Old France, 
and lastly England. While on friendly terms with 
the church, they did not make their explorations sub- 
servient to the propagation of the faith. In conse- 
quence, they were ignored by both Church and State. 
The Jesuit Relations repeatedly refer to two young 
Frenchmen who went beyond Lake Michigan to a 
"Forked River" (the Mississippi), among the Sioux 
and other Indian tribes that used coal for fire because 
wood did not grow large enough on the prairie. Con- 
temporaneous documents mention the exploits of the 
young Frenchmen. The State Papers of the Marine 
Department, Paris, contain numerous references to 
Radisson and Groseillers. But, then, the Jesuit Rela- 
tions were not accessible to scholars, let alone the 
general public, until the middle of the last century, 
when a limited edition was reprinted of the Cramoisy 
copies published at the time the priests sent their 
letters home to France. The contemporaneous writ- 

1 I of course refer to the West as hesond the Great Lakes ; for Nicolet, in 1634, 
and two nameless Frenchmen — servants of Jean de Lauzon — in 1654, had been 
beyond the Sault. 



FOREWORD xi 

Ings of Marie de 1' Incarnation, the Abbe Belmont, and 
Dollier de Casson were not known outside tne circle 
of French savants until still later; and it is onl\- 
within recent years that the Archives ot Paris have 
been searched tor historical data. Meantime, the 
historians ot France and England, animated bv the 
hostility of their respective governments, either slurred 
over the discoveries of Radisson and Groseillers en- 
tirely, or blackened their memories without the slight- 
est regard to truth. It would, in tact, take a large 
volume to contradict and disprove halt the lies written 
ot these two men. Instead ot consulting contempo- 
raneous documents, — which would have entailed both 
cost and labor, — modern writers have, untortunately, 
been satisfied to serve up a rehash ot the detractions 
written bv the old historians. In 1885 came a dis- 
covery that punished such slovenly methods by prac- 
tically wiping out the work of the pseudo-historians. 
There was tound in the British Museum, the Bod- 
leian Eibrarv, and Hudson's Bay House, London, 
unmistakably authentic record of Radisson's voyages, 
written by himself The Prince Society of Boston 
printed two hundred and fifty copies of the collected 
journals. The Canadian Archives published the jour- 
nals ot the two last voya2;es. Francis Parkman was 
too conscientious to ignore the importance of the 
find ; but his history of the West was already written. 
He made what reparation he could to Radisson's 
memory by appending a tootnote to subsequent edi- 



xii FOREWORD 

tions of two of his books, stating that Radisson and 
Groseillers' travels took them to the "Forked River" 
before 1660. Some ten other Hnes are all that Mr. 
Parkman relates of Radisson ; and the data for these 
brief references have evidently been drawn from Rad- 
isson's enemies, for the explorer is called " a rene- 
gade." It is necessary to state this, because some 
writers, whose zeal for criticism was much greater 
than their qualifications, wanted to know why any one 
should attempt to write Radisson's life when Parkman 
had already done so. 

Radisson's life reads more like a second Robinson 
Crusoe than sober history. For that reason I have 
put the corroborative evidence in footnotes, rather 
than cumber the movement of the main theme. I 
am sorry to have loaded the opening parts with so 
many notes ; but Radisson's voyages change the rela- 
tive positions of the other explorers so radically that 
proofs must be given. The footnotes are for the 
student and may be omitted by the general reader. 
The study of Radisson arose from using his later 
exploits on Hudson Bay as the subject of the novel, 
Heralds of Empire. On the publication of that book, 
several letters came from the Western states ask- 
ing how far I thought Radisson had gone bevond 
Lake Superior before he went to Hudson Bay. 
Having in mind — I am sorry to say — mainly the 
early records of Radisson's enemies, I at first an- 
swered that I thought it very difficult to identify the 



FOREWORD xiii 

discoverer's itinerary beyond the (ireat Lakes. So 
many letters continued to come on the subject that 
I began to investigate contemporaneous documents. 
The path followed by the explorer west of the Great 
Lakes — as given by Radisson himself — is here writ- 
ten. Full corroboration of all that Radisson relates 
is to be found — as already stated — in chronicles 
written at the period of his life and in the State 
Papers. Copies of these I have in mv possession. 
Samples of the papers bearing on Radisson's times, 
copied from the Marine Archives, will be found in 
the Appendix. One must either accept the explorer's 
word as conclusive, — even when he relates his own 
trickery, — or in rejecting his journal also reject as 
fictions the Jesuit Relations^ the Marine Archives^ 
Dollier de Casson^ Marie de V Incarnation^ and the 
Abbe Belmont^ which record the same events as Radis- 
son. In no case has reliance been placed on second- 
hand chronicles. Oldmixon and Charlevoix must 
both have written from hearsay ; therefore, though 
quoted in the footnotes, thev are not given as conclu- 
sive proof. The only means of identifying Radisson's 
routes are (i) by his descriptions of the countries, 
(2) his notes of the Lidian tribes; so that personal 
knowledge of the territory is absolutely essential in 
following Radisson's narrative. All the regions trav- 
ersed by Radisson — the Ottawa, the St. Lawrence, 
the (jreat Lakes, Labrador, and the Great Northwest 
— I have visited, some of them many times, except 



xiv FOREWORD 

the shores of Hudson Bay, and of that region I 
have some hundreds of photographs. 

Material for the accounts of the other pathfinders 
of the West has been drawn directly from the dif- 
ferent explorers' journals. 

For historical matter I wish to express my indebt- 
edness to Dr. N. E. Dionne of the Parliamentary 
Library, Ouebec, whose splendid sketch of Radisson 
and Groseillers, read before the Royal Society of 
Canada, does much to redeem the memory of the 
discoverers from ignominy ; to Dr. George Bryce of 
Winnipeg, whose investigation of Hudson's Bay Ar- 
chives adds a new chapter to Radisson's lite; to Mr. 
Benjamin Suite of Ottawa, whose destructive criticism 
of inaccuracies in old and modern records has done 
so much to stop people writing history out of their 
heads and to put research on an honest basis ; and to 
M. E'.douard Richard tor scholarly advice relating to 
the Marine Archives, which he has exploited so thor- 
oughly. For transcripts and archives now out of 
print, thanks are due Mr. L. P. Sylvain of the Parlia- 
mentary Library, Ottawa, the officials of the Archives 
Department, Ottawa, Mr. F. C. Wurtele of Ouebec, 
Professor Andrew Baird of Winnipeg, Mr. Alfred 
Matthews of the Prince Society, Boston, the Hon. 
Jacob V, Brower and Mr. Warren Upham of St, 
Paul. Mr. Lawrence J. Burpee of Ottawa was so 
good as to give me a reading of his exhaustive notes 
on La Verendrye and of data found on the Radisson 



FOREWORD XV 

family. To Mrs. Fred Paget of Ottawa, the daughter 
of a Hudson's Bay Company officer, and to Mr. and 
Mrs, C. C. Farr of the Northern Ottawa, I am in- 
debted for interesting tacts on life in the fur posts. 
Miss Talbot of Winnipeg obtained from retired officers 
of the Hudson's Bav Company a most complete set 
of photographs relating to the fur trade. To her 
and to those officers who loaned old heirlooms to be 
photographed, I beg to express my cordial apprecia- 
tion. And the thanks of all who write on the North 
are permanently due Mr. C. C. Chipman, Chief Com- 
missioner of the Hudson's Bay Company, for unfail- 
ing courtesy in extending information. 

WiLDwooD Place, 

Wassaic, N.Y. 



Just as this volume was going to the printer, I received a copy of the very' valuable 
Minnesota Memoir, Vol. VI, compiled by the Hon. J. V. Brower of St. Paul, 
to whom my thanks are due for this excellent contribution to Western annals. It may 
be said that the authors of this volume have done more than any other writers to vindi- 
cate Radisson and Groseillers as explorers of the West. The very ditierences of opinion 
over the regions visited establish the fact that Radisson did explore parts of Minnesota. 
I have purposely avoided trying to say luhat parts of Minnesota he exploited, because, 
it seems to me, the controversy is futile. Radisson's memory has been the subject o\ 
controversy from the time of his life. The controversy — first between the govern- 
ments of France and England, subsequently between the French and English historians 
— has eclipsed the real achievements of Radisson. To me it seems non-essential as to 
v*hether Radisson camped on an island in the Mississippi, or only visited the region 
of that island. The tact remains that he discovered the Great Northwest, meaning by 
that the region west of the Mississippi. The same dispute has obscured his explorations 
of Hudson Bay, French writers maintaining that he went overland to the North 
and put his feet in the waters of the bay, the English writers insisting that he only 
crossed over the watershed toward Hudson Bay. Again, the ftict remains that he did 



xvi FOREWORD 

what others had failed to do — discovered an overland route to the bay. I am sorry 
that Radisson is accused in this Memoir of intentionally falsifying his relations in two 
respects; (i) in adding a fanciful year to the 1 65 8-1660 voyage ; (2) in saying that 
he had voyaged down the Mississippi to Mexico. (i) Internal evidence plainly shows 
that Radisson' s first four voyages were written twenty years afterward, when he was in 
London, and not while on the voyage across the Atlantic with Cartwright, the Boston 
commissioner. It is the most natural thing in the world that Radisson, who had so 
often been to the wilds, should have mixed his dates. Every slip as to dates is so easily 
checked by contemporaneous records — which, themselves, need to be checked — that 
it seems too bad to accuse Radisson of wilfully lying in the matter. When Radisson 
lied it was to avoid bloodshed, and not to exalt himself. If he had had glorification of 
self in mind, he would not have set down his own faults so unblushingly ; for instance, 
where he deceives M. Colbert of Paris. (2) Radisson does not try to give the impres- 
sion that he went to Mexico. The sense of the context is that he met an Indian tribe 
— Illinois, Mandans, Omahas, or some other — who lived next to another tribe who 
told of the Spaniards. I feel almost sure that the scholarly Mr. Benjamin Suite is 
right in his letter to me when he suggests that Radisson' s manuscript has been mixed 
by transposition of pages or paragraphs, rather than that Radisson himself was confused 
in his account. At the same time every one of the contributors to the Minnesota 
Alemoir deserves the thanks of all who love true history. 



ADDENDUM 

Since the above foreword was written, the contents of this volume have appeared 
serially in four New York magazines. The context of the book was slightly abridged 
in these articles, so that a very vital distinction — namely, the difference between what 
is given as in dispute, and what is given as incontrovertible fact — was lost ; but what 
was my amusement to receive letters from all parts of the West all but challenging me to 
a duel. One wants to know "how a reputable author dare" suggest that Radisson's 
voyages be taken as authentic. There is no " dare " about it. It is a fact. For any 
" reputable" historian to suggest — as two recently have — that Radisson's voyages are 
a fabrication, is to stamp that historian as a pretender who has not investigated a single 
record contemporaneous with Radisson's life. One cannot consult documents contem- 
poraneous with his life and not learn instantly that he was a very live fact of the most 
troublesome kind the governments of France and England ever had to accept. That 
is why it impresses me as a presumption that is almost comical for any modern writer to 
condescend to say that he "accepts" or "rejects" this or that part of Radisson's 
record. If he " rejects " Radisson, he also rejects the Marine Archi'ves of Paris, and 
the Jesuit Relations, which are the recognized sources of our early history. 



FOREWORD xvii 

Another correspondent furiously denounces Radisson as a liar because he mixes his 
dates of the 1660 trip. It would be just as reasonable to call La Salle a liar because 
there are discrepancies in the dates of his exploits, as to call Radisson a liar for the slips 
in his dates. When the mistakes can be checked from internal evidence, one is hardly 
justified in charging falsification. 

A third correspondent is troubled by the reference to the Mascoutin Indians being 
befor.d the Mississippi. State documents establish this fact. I am not responsible for 
it ; and Radisson could not circle west-northwest from the Mascoutins to the great 
encampments of the Sioux without going far west of the Mississippi. Even if the 
Jesuits make a slip in referring to the Sioux's use of some kind of coal for fire because 
there was no wood on the prairie, and really mean turf or buffalo refuse, — which I 
have seen the Sioux use for fire, — the fact is that only the tribes far west of the Missis- 
sippi habitually used such substitutes for wood. 

My Wisconsin correspondents I have offended by saying that Radisson went beyond 
the Wisconsin ; my Minnesota friends, by saying that he went bevond Minnesota; and 
my Manitoba co-workers of past days, by suggesting that he ever went bevond Manitoba. 
The feet remains that when we try to identify Radisson's voyages, we must take his 
own account of his journeyings ; and that account establishes him as the Discoverer of 
the Northwest. 

For those who know, I surely do not need to state that there is no picture of 
Radisson extant; and that some of the studies of his life are just as genuine (.'') as 
alleged old prints of his likeness. 



CONTENTS 

PART ONE 

PIERRE ESPRIT RADISSON 

Adventures of the First White Man to explore the 
West, the Northwest, and the North 

CHAPTER I 

Radisson's First \'^oyage 

PAGE 

The Boy Radisson is captured bv the Iroquois and carried to 
the Mohawk Vallev — In League with Another Captive, 
he slays their Guards and escapes — He is overtaken in 
Sight of Home — Tortured and adopted in the Tribe, 
he visits Orange, where the Dutch offer to ransom him — 
His Escape ........ 3 

CHAPTER II 

Radisson's Second Voyage 

Radisson returns to Quebec, where he joins the Jesuits to go to 
the Iroquois Mission — He witnesses the Massacre of the 
Hurons among the Thousand Islands — Besieged by the 
Iroquois, they pass the Winter as Prisoners of War — 
Conspiracy to massacre the French foiled by Radisson . 43 



XX CONTENTS 

CHAPTER III 
Radisson's Third Voyage 

PACE 

The Discovery of the Great Northwest — Radisson and his 
Brother-in-law, Groseillers, visit what are now Wisconsin, 
Minnesota, Dakota, and the Canadian Northwest — Radis- 
son's Prophecy on first beholding the West — Twelve 
Years before Marquette and Jolliet, Radisson sees the 
Mississippi — The Terrible Remains of Dollard's Fight 
seen on the Way down the Ottawa — Why Radisson's 
Explorations have been ignored . . o . .68 

CHAPTER IV 

Radisson's Fourth Voyage 

The Success of the Explorers arouses Envy — It becomes known 
that they have heard of the Famous Sea of the North — 
•When they ask Permission to resume their Explorations, 
the French Governor refuses except on Condition of 
receiving Half the Profits — In Defiance, the Explorers 
steal off at Midnight — They return with a Fortune and 
are driven from New France . . . . .101 

CHAPTER V 

Radisson renounces Allegiance to Two Crowns 

Rival Traders thwart the Plans of the Discoverers — Entangled 
in Lawsuits, the Two French Explorers go to England — 
The Organization of the Hudson's Bav Fur Company — 
Radisson the Storm-centre of International Intrigue — Bos- 
ton Merchants in the Struggle to capture the Fur Trade . 132 



CONTKNTS xxi 

CHAPTER \'I 
Radisson gives up a Carker in the Navy for the Fur Trade 

PACE 

Though opposed by the Monopolists of Quebec, he secures Ships 
for a Voyage to Hudson Bay — Here he encounters a 
Pirate Ship from Boston and an English Ship of the Hud- 
son's Bav Companv — How he plays his Cards to win 
against Both Rivals . . . . . . .150 

• CHAPTER \JI 

The Last Voyage of Radisson to Hudson Bay ' 

France refuses to restore the Confiscated Furs and Radisson tries 
to redeem his Fortune — Reengaged by England, he cap- 
tures back Fort Nelson, but comes to Want in his Old 
Age — His Character . . . . , .178 

PART TWO 

The Search for the Western Sea, being an Account of 
the Discovery of the Rocky Mountains, the Mis- 
souri Uplands, and the \'alley of the Saskatchewan 

CHAPTER \III 

The Search for the Western Sea 

M. de la Verendrye continues the Exploration of the Great 
Northwest by establishing a Chain of Fur Posts across the 
Continent — Privations of the Explorers and the Massacre 
of Twenty Followers — His Sons visit the Mandans and 
discover the Rockies — The \'alley of the Saskatchewan is 
next explored, but Jealousy thwarts the Explorer, and he 
dies in Poverty . . , . , . .193 



xxii CONTENTS 

PART THREE 

Search for the Northwest Passage leads Samuel Hearne 
TO THE Arctic Circle and Athabasca Region 

CHAPTER IX 
Samuel Hearne 

PAGE 

The Adventures of Hearne in his Search for the Coppermine 
River and Northwest Passage — Hilarious Life of Wassail 
led bv Governor Norton — The Massacre of the Eskimo by 
Hearne' s Indians North of the Arctic Circle — Discovery 
of the Athabasca Countrv — Hearne becomes Resident 
Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, but is captured by 
the French — Death of Norton and Suicide of Matonabbee 24.1 

PART FOUR 

First across the Rockies — How Mackenzie crossed the 
Northern Rockies and Lewis and Clark were First 
TO cross from Missouri to Columbia 

CHAPTER X 
First Across the Rockies 
How Mackenzie found the Great River named after him and 
then pushed across the Mountains to the Paciiic, forever 
settling the Question of a Northwest Passage . . 275 

CHAPTER XI 
Lewis and Clark 

The First White Men to ascend the Missouri to its Sources and 
descend the Columbia to the Paciiic — Exciting Adventures 
on the Canons of the Missouri, the Discovery of the Great 
Falls and the Yellowstone — Lewis' Escape from Hostiles 307 

Appendix . . . . . . . . -335 

Index .......... 369 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Stealing from the Fort b\- Night .... Frontispiece ^ 



PAGE 



Map of the Great Fur Countrv . . . Facing i ' 

Three Rivers in 1757 . . . . . . . 5 

Map of the Iroquois Countrv in the Days of Radisson . . 14 

Albany from an Old Print . . . . . .32 

The Battery, New York, in Radisson's Time . . •37 

Fort Amsterdam, from an ancient engraving executed in Holland 41 
One of the Earliest Maps of the Great Lakes . Facing 43- 

Paddling past Hostiles ....... 50 

Jogues, the Jesuit Missionarv, who was tortured hv the Mohawks 56 
Chateau de Ramczav, Montreal . . . . .61 

A Cree Brave, with the Wampum String .... 70 

-An Old-time Buffalo Hunt on the Plains among the Sioux Facing 81 - 
Father Marquette, from an old painting discovered in Montreal 83 
Wjyageurs running the Rapids of the Ottawa River . . 95 

Montreal in 1760 . . . . . . Facing loi ■ 

Chateau St. Louis, Quebec, 1669 . . . . .108 

A Parley on the Plains ..... Facing 1 20 

Martello Tower of Refuge in Time of Indian \^'ars — Three 

Rivers . . . . . . . . .134 

Skin for Skin, Coat of Arms and Motto, Hudson's Bav Company i 51 
Hudson's Bay Company Coins, made of Lead melted from Tea- 
chests at York Factor v . . . . . .163 

Hudson Bay Dog Trains laden with Furs arriving at Lower 

Fort Garry, Red River . . . . . .187 

xxiii 



XXIV 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Indians and Hunters spurring to the Fight . . Facing 194. ' 

Fights at the Foothills of the Rockies, between Crows and 

Snakes ....... Facing 196 ' 

Each Man landed with Pack on his Back and trotted awav over 

Portages . . . . . . . .199 

A Cree Indian of the Minnesota Borderlands . , . 200 

A Group of Cree Indians ...... 207 

The Soldiers marched out from Mount PvOval for the Western 

Sea ....... Facing 212^ 

Traders' Boats running the Rapids of the Athabasca River . 217 
The Ragged Sky-line of the Mountains . . . .220 

Hungry Hall, 1870 . . . . . . .223 

A Monarch of the Plains ...... 228 

Fur Traders towed down the Saskatchewan in the Summer ot 

1900 ......... 231 

Tepees dotted the Vallev . . , . . . .236 

An Eskimo Belle ........ 242 

Samuel Hearne ........ 248 

Eskimo using Double-bladed Paddle . . . . .250 

Eskimo Family, taken by Light of Midnight Sun . Facing 258/ 

Fort Garrv, Winnipeg, a Century Ago . . . .262 

Plan of Fort Prince of Wales, from Robson's drawing, 1733— 

1747 ......... 266 

Fort Prince of Wales . . . . . . .270 

Beaver Coin of the Hudson's Bav Company . . .271 

Alexander Mackenzie . . . . . , .276 

Eskimo trading his Pipe, carved from Walrus Tusk, for the 

Value of Three Beaver Skins . . . . ,278 

Ouill and Beadwork on Buckskin . . . . .281 

Fort William, Headquarters Northwest Company, Lake Superior 283 
Running a Rapid on Mackenzie River . . Facing 286 

Slave Lake Indians ........ 290 

Good Hope, Mackenzie River, Hudson's Bay Company Fort . 301 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



XXV 



The Mouth of the Mackenzie by the Light of the Midnight Sun 

Captain Meriwether Lewis 

Captain WiHiam Clark 

Tracking up Stream 

Typical Mountain Trapper 

The Discovery of the Great Falls 

Fighting a Grizzly . 

Packer carrving Goods across Portage 

Spying on Encmv's Fort . 

Indian Camp at Foothills of Rockies 

On Guard .... 

Indians of the Up-country or Pays d'en Haut 



306 





309 




3'o 




314 




3.6 


Facing 


3'7 


Fdciiig 


3«9 




320 




322 




32+ 


Facing 


328 




330 



PART I 
PIERRK ESPRIT RADISSON 

ADVENTURES OF THE FIRST WHITE MAN TO 
EXPLORE THE WEST, THE NORTHWEST, AND 
THE NORTH 



Pathfinders of the West 

CHAPTER I 

1651-1653 

RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE 

The Boy Radisson is captured by the Iroquois and carried to the 
Mohawk Valley — In League with Another Captive, he slays their 
Guards and escapes — He is overtaken in Sight of Home — • 
Tortured and adopted in the Tribe, he visits Orange, where the 
Dutch offer to ransom him — His Escape 

Early one morning in the spring of 1652 three 
voiing men left the Httle stockaded fort of Three 
Rivers, on the north bank of the St. Lawrence, for a 
day's hunting in the marshes of Lake St. Peter. On 
one side were the forested hills, purple with the mists 
of rising vapor and still streaked with white patches ot 
snow where the dense woods shut out the sunlight. 
On the other lav the silver expanse ot the St. Law- 
rence, more like a lake than a river, with mile on mile 
southwestward of rush-grown marshes, where plover 
and curlew and duck and wild geese flocked to their 
favorite feeding-grounds three hundred years ago just 

3 



4 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

as they do to-day. Northeastward, the three mouths 
of the St. Maurice poured their spring flood into the 
St. Lawrence. 

The hunters were very young. Only hunters rash 
with the courage of untried youth would have left the 
shelter of the fort walls when all the world knew that 
the Iroquois had been lying in ambush round the little 
settlement of Three Rivers day and night for the pre- 
ceding year. Not a week passed but some settler 
working on the outskirts of Three Rivers was set 
upon and left dead in his fields by marauding Iroquois. 
The tortures suffered by Jogues, the great Jesuit 
missionary who had been captured by the Iroquois a 
few years before, were still fresh in the memory of 
every man, woman, and child in New France. It was 
from Three Rivers that Piescaret, the famous Algon- 
quin chief who could outrun a deer, had set out against 
the Iroquois, turning his snowshoes back to front, so 
that the track seemed to lead north when he was really 
going south, and then, having thrown his pursuers off 
the trail, coming back on his own footsteps, sHpping 
up stealthily on the Iroquois that were following the 
false scent, and tomahawking the laggards.^ It was 
from Three Rivers that the Mohawks had captured 
the Algonquin girl who escaped by slipping off the 
thongs that bound her. Stepping over the prostrate 

1 Benjamin Suite in Chronique Trijiwvienne, 



RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE 5 

forms ot her sleeping guards, such a turv of revenge 
possessed her that she seized an axe and brained the 
nearest sleeper, then ekided her pursuers bv first hiding 
in a hollow tree and afterward diving under the debris 
of a beaver dam. 

These things were known to every inhabitant ot 
Three Rivers. Farmers had flocked into the little 







Three Rivers 



111 I / o / . 



fort and could venture back to their fields only when 
armed with a musket.' "\'et the three young hunters 
rashly left the shelter of the fort walls and took the 

1 It was in August of this same year, 1652, that the governor of Three Rivers 
was slain by the Iroquois. Parkman gives this date, 1653 ; Garneau, 1651 ; L'Abbe 
Tanguay, 1651; Dollier de Casson, i6i;i; Belmont, 1653. Suite gives the name 
of the governor Duplessis-Kerbodot, not Bochart, as given in Parkman. 



6 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

very dangerous path that led between the forests and 
the water. One of the young men was barely in his 
seventeenth year/ This was Pierre Esprit Radisson, 
from St. Malo, the town of the famous Cartier. 
Young Radisson had only come to New France the 
year before, and therefore could not realize the dangers 
of Indian warfare. Like boys the world over, the 
three went along, boasting how they would fight if the 
Indians came. One skirted the forest, on the watch 
for Iroquois, the others kept to the water, on the look- 
out for game. About a mile from Three Rivers 
they encountered a herdsman who warned them to 
keep out from the foot of the hills. Things that 
looked like a multitude of heads had risen out of the 
earth back there, he said, pointing to the forests. 
That set the young hunters loading their pistols and 
priming muskets. It must also have chilled their 
zest; for, shooting some ducks, one of the young men 
presently declared that he had had enough — he was 
going back. With that daring which was to prove 
both the lodestar and the curse ot his life, young 

1 Dr. Bryce has unearthed the fact that in a petition to the House of Commons, 
1698, Radisson sets down his age as sixty-two. This gives the year of his birth as 1636. 
On the other hand, Suite has record of a Pierre Radisson registered at Quebec in 1681, 
aged fifty-one, which would make him slightly older, if it is the same Radisson. Mr. 
Suite's explanation is as follows : Sebastien Hayet of St. Malo married Madeline He- 
nault. Their daughter Marguerite married Chouart, known as Groseillers. Madeline 
Henault then married Pierre Esprit Radisson of Paris, whose children were Pierre, our 
hero, and two daughters. 



RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE 7 

Radisson laughed to scorn the sudden change of mind. 
Thereupon the first hunter was joined by the second, 
and the two went oti" in high dudgeon. With a laugh, 
Pierre Radisson marched along alone, foreshadowing 
his after life, — a type of every pathfinder facing the 
dangers of the unknown with dauntless scorn, an im- 
mortal type of the world-hero. 

Shooting at every pace and hilarious over his luck, 
Radisson had wandered some nine miles trom the tort, 
when he came to a stream too deep to tord and real- 
ized that he already had more game than he could pos- 
sibly carry. Hiding in hollow trees what he could not 
bring back, he began trudging toward Three Rivers with 
a string of geese, ducks, and odd teal over his shoulders. 
Wading swollen brooks and scrambling over windfiills, 
he retraced his way without pause till he caught sight 
of the town chapel glimmering in the sunlight against 
the darkening horizon above the river. He was almost 
back where his comrades had left him ; so he sat down to 
rest. The cowherd had dri\en his cattle back to Ihree 
Rivers.' The river came lapping through the rushes. 
There was a clacking of wild-towl flocking down to 

1 A despatch from M. Talon in 1666 shows there were 461 families in Three 
Rivers. State papers from the Minister to M. Frontenac in 1674 show there were 
only 6705 French in all the colony. Averaging five a family, there must have been 
2000 people at Three Rivers. Fear of the Iroquois must have driven the country 
people inside the fort, so that the population enrolled was larger than the real population 
of Three Rivers. Suite gives the normal population of Three Rivers in 1654 as 
38 married couples, 13 bachelors, 38 boys, 26 girls — in all not ;oo. 



8 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

their marsh nests ; perhaps a crane flopped through 
the reeds ; but Radisson, who had laughed the ner- 
vous fears of the others to scorn, suddenly gave a 
start at the lonely sounds of twilight. Then he 
noticed that his pistols were water-soaked. Empty- 
ing the charges, he at once reloaded, and with char- 
acteristic daring crept softly back to reconnoitre the 
woods. Dodging from tree to tree, he peered up 
and down the river. Great flocks ot ducks were 
swimming on the water. That reassured him, tor 
the bird is more alert to alarm than man. The fort 
was almost within call. Radisson determined to have 
a shot at such easy quarry ; but as he crept through 
the grass toward the game, he almost stumbled over 
w^hat rooted him to the spot with horror. Just as 
they had fallen, naked and scalped, with bullet and 
hatchet wounds all over their bodies, lay his comrades 
of the morning, dead among the rushes. Radisson 
was too far out to get back to the w'oods. Stooping, 
he tried to grope to the hiding of the rushes. As 
he bent, half a hundred heads rose from the grasses, 
peering which wav he might go. Thev were behind, 
before, on all sides — his only hope was a dash for 
the cane-grown river, where he might hide by diving 
and wading, till darkness gave a chance for a rush to 
the" fort. Slipping bullet and shot in his musket as 
he ran, and ramming down the paper, hoping against 



RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE 9 

hope that he had not heen seen, he dashed through 
the brushwood. A score of guns crashed from the 
forest.' Before he realized the penalty that the Iro- 
quois might exact tor such an act, he had fired back ; 
but thcv were upon him. He was thrown down and 
disarmed. When he came giddily to his senses, he 
found himself being dragged back to the woods, where 
the Iroquois flaunted the fresh scalps of his dead 
friends. Half drawn, half driven, he was taken to the 
shore. Here, a flotilla of canoes lay concealed where 
he had been hunting wild-fowl but a few hours before. 
Fires were kindled, and the crotched sticks driven in 
the ground to boil the kettle for the evening meal. 
The young Frenchman was searched, stripped, and 
tied round the waist with a rope, the Indians yelling 
and howling like so many wolves all the while till 
a pause was given their jubilation bv the alarm of a 
scout that the French and Algonquins were coming. 
In a trice, the fire was out and covered. A score of 
young braves set ofi^ to reconnoitre. Fiftv remained 
at the boats ; but if Radisson hoped for a rescue, 
he was doomed to disappointment. Ihe warriors 
returned. Seventy Iroquois gathered round a sec- 
ond fire for the night. The one predominating pas- 

' At first flush, this seems a slip in RaJissons Relation. Where did the Mohawks 
get their guns? Ne-zv Tork Colonial Documents show that between 1640 and 1650 
the Dutch at Fort Grange had supplied the Mohawks alone with four hundred guns. 



lo PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

sion of the savage nature is bravery. Lying in 
ambush, they had heard this French youth laugh 
at his comrades' fears. In defiance of danger, they 
had seen him go hunting alone. After he had heard 
an alarm, he had daringly come out to shoot at the 
ducks. And, then, boy as he was, when attacked 
he had instantly fired back at numerous enough 
enemies to have intimidated a score of grown men. 
There is not the slightest doubt it was Radisson's 
bravery that now saved him from the fate of his 
companions. 

His clothes were returned. While the evening meal 
was boiling, young warriors dressed and combed the 
Frenchman's hair after the manner of braves. They 
daubed his cheeks with war-paint ; and when they 
saw that their rancid meats turned him faint, they 
boiled meat in clean water and gave him meal 
browned on burning sand.^ He did not struggle 
to escape, so he was now untied. That night he 
slept between two warriors under a common blanket, 
through which he counted the stars. For fifty years 
his home was to be under the stars. It is typically 
Radisson when he could add : " I slept a sound 



1 One of many instances of Radisson's accuracy in detail. All tribes have a 
trick of browning food on hot stones or sand that has been taken from fire. The 
Assiniboines gained their name from this practice : they were the users of " boiling 
stones. ' ' 



RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE ii 

sleep ; for they wakened me upon the breaking of 
the day." In the morning they embarked in thirty- 
seven canoes, two Indians in each boat, with Radisson 
tied to the cross-bar of one, the scalps lying at his feet. 
Spreading out on the river, they beat their paddles on 
the gunwales of the canoes, shot off guns, and uttered 
the shrill war-cry — " Ah-oh ! Ah-oh ! Ah-oh ! " ' 
Lest this were not sufficient defiance to the penned-up 
fort on the ri\'er bank, the chief stood up in his canoe, 
signalled silence, and gave three shouts. At once the 
whole company answered till the hills rang; and out 
swung the fleet of canoes with more shouting and 
singing and firing ot guns, each paddle-stroke sound- 
ing the death knell to the young Frenchman's hopes. 
By sunset they were among the islands at the 
mouth of the Richelieu, where muskrats scuttled 
through the rushes and wild-fowl clouded the air. 
The south shore of Lake St. Peter was heavily 
forested ; the north, shallow. The lake was flooded 
with spring thaw, and the Mohawks could scarcely 
find camping-ground among the islands. The young 
prisoner was deathly sick from the rank food that he 

' I have asked both natives and old fur-traders what combination of sounds in 
English most closely resembles the Ind'an war-cn,-, and they have all given the words 
that I have quoted. One daughter of a chief fiictor, who went through a six weeks' 
siege by hostiles in her father's fort, gave a still more graphic description. She said : 
" If you can imagine the snarls of a pack of furiously vicious dogs saying * ah-oh ' 
with a whoop, you have it ; and you will not forget it ! " 



12 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

had eaten and heart-sick from the widening distance 
between himself and Three Rivers. Still, they treated 
him kindly, saying, " Chagon ! Chagon ! — Be merry ! 
Cheer up ! " The fourth day up the Richelieu, he was 
embarked without being fastened to the cross-bar, and 
he was given a paddle. Fresh to the work, Radisson 
made a labor of his oar. The Iroquois took the 
paddle and taught him how to give the light, deft, 
feather strokes of the Indian canoeman. On the 
river they met another band of warriors, and the 
prisoner was compelled to show himself a trophy 
of victory and to sing songs for his captors. That 
evening the united bands kindled an enormous camp- 
fire and with the scalps of the dead flaunting from 
spear heads danced the scalp dance, reenacting in 
pantomime all the episodes of the massacre to the 
monotonous chant-chant of a recitative relating the 
foray. At the next camping-ground, Radisson's hair 
was shaved in front and decorated on top with the 
war-crest of a brave. Having translated the white 
man into a savage, they brought him one of the tin 
looking-glasses used by Indians to signal in the sun. 
" I, viewing myself all in a pickle," relates Radisson, 
" smeared with red and black, covered with such a 
top, . . . could not but fall in love with myself, if 
I had not had better instructions to shun the sin of 
pride. 



RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE 



13 



Radisson saw that apparent compliance with the 
Mohawks might win him a chance to escape; so he 
was the first to arise in the morning, wakening the 
others and urging them that it was time to break 
camp. The stolid Indians were not to be moved bv 
an audacious white boy. Watching the young pris- 
oner, the keepers lay still, feigning sleep. Radisson 
rose. They made no protest. He wandered casually 
down to the water side. One can guess that the half- 
closed eyelids of his guards opened a trifle : was the 
mouse trying to get away from the cat? To the 
Indians' amusement, instead of trying to escape, Rad- 
isson picked up a spear and practised tossing it, till a 
Mohawk became so interested that he jumped up and 
taught the young Frenchman the proper throws. 
That day the Indians gave him the present of a hunting- 
knife. North of Lake Champlain, the river became so 
turbulent that they were forced to land and make a 
portage. Instead of lagging, as captives frequently did 
from very fear as they approached nearer and nearer 
what was almost certain to mean death-torture in the 
Iroquois villages — Radisson hurried over the rocks, 
helping the older warriors to carry their packs. At 
night he was the first to cut wood for the camp 
fire. 

About a week from the time they had left Lake St. 
Peter, they entered Lake Champlain. On the shores 



H 



PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 



Iroquois country in the days 
of Radisson, from the Jes- 
uit Relations, the dotted 
lines indicating Radis- 
son's travels while he 
was with the Mohawks. 



of the former had been enacted the most hideous of all 
Indian customs — the scalp dance. On the shores of 
the latter was performed one of the most redeeming 
rites of Indian warfare. Round a small pool of water 
a coppice of branches was interlaced. Into the water 

were thrown hot 
stones till the 
enclosure was 
steaming. Here 
each warrior 
took a sweat- 
bath of purifica- 
tion to prepare 
for reunion with 
his family. In- 
voking the 
spirits as they 
bathed, the warriors emerged washed — as they thought 
— of all blood-guilt.^ 

In the night shots sounded through the heavy 
silence of the forest, and the Mohawks embarked in 
alarm, compelling their white prisoner to lie flat in the 
bottom of the canoe. In the morning when he awak- 

1 This practice was a binding law on many tribes. Catlin relates it of the Mandans, 
and Hearne of the Chipewyans. The latter considered it a crime to kiss wives and 
children after a massacre without the bath of purification. Could one know where 
and when that universal custom of washing blood-guilt arose, one mystery of existence 
would be unlocked. 




RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE 15 

ened, he found the entire h:ind hidden among the 
rushes of the hike. They spent several days on Lake 
Champlain, then ghded past wooded mountains down 
a cahii river to Lake George, where canoes were aban- 
doned and the w-arriors struck westward through dense 
forests to the country of the Iroquois. Two days from 
the lake slave women met the returning braves, and 
in Radisson's words, " loaded themselves like mules 
with bacTgage." On this woodland march Radisson 
won golden opinions tor himselt bv two acts : struck 
bv an insolent \oung brave, he thrashed the culprit 
soundly ; seeing an old man staggering under too 
heavy a load, the white youth took the burden on his 
own shoulders. 

The return of the warriors to then- villages was always 
celebrated as a triumph. The tribe marched out to 
meet them, singing, firing guns, shouting a welcome, 
dancing as the Israelites danced of old when victors 
returned from battle. Men, women, and children lined 
up on each side armed with clubs and whips to scourge 
the captives. Well for Radisson that he had won the 
warriors' fa\'or ; for when the time came for him to 
run the gantlet of Iroquois diableries^ instead ot being 
slowly led, with trussed arms and shackled feet, he was 
stripped free and signalled to run so fast that his tor- 
mentors could not hit him. Shrieks of laughter trom 
the women, shouts of applause trom the men, always 



i6 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

greeted the racer who reached the end of the line un- 
scathed. A captive Huron woman, who had been 
adopted by the tribe, caught the white boy as he 
dashed free of a single blow clear through the lines of 
tormentors. Leading him to her cabin, she fed and 
clothed him. Presently a band of braves marched up, 
demanded the surrender of Radisson, and took him to 
the Council Lodge of the Iroquois for judgment. 

Old men sat solemnly round a central fire, smoking 
their calumets in silence. Radisson was ordered to sit 
down. A coal of fire was put in the bowl of the great 
Council Pipe and passed reverently round the assem- 
blage. Then the old Huron woman entered, gesticu- 
lating and pleading for the youth's life. The men 
smoked on silently with deep, guttural " ho-ho's," mean- 
ing "yes, yes, we are pleased." The woman was granted 
permission to adopt Radisson as a son. Radisson had 
won his end. Diplomacy and courage had saved his life. 
It now remained to await an opportunity for escape. 

Radisson bent all his energies to become a great 
hunter. He was given firearms, and daily hunted 
with the family of his adoption. It so happened that 
the family had lost a son in the wars, whose name had 
signified the same as Radisson's — that is, "a stone"; 
so the Pierre of Three Rivers became the Orimha of the 
Mohawks. The Iroquois husband of the woman who 
had befriended him gave such a feast to the Mohawk 



RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE 17 

braves as befitted the prestige of a warrior wiio had 
slain nineteen enemies with his own hand. Three 
hundred voung Mohawks sat down to a collation of 
moose nose and beaver tails and bears' paws, served 
by slaves. To this banquet Radisson was led, decked 
oat in colored blankets with garnished leggings and 
such a wealth of wampum strings hanging from wrists, 
neck, hair, and waist that he could scarcely walk. 
Wampum means more to the Indian than money to 
the white man. It represents not only wealth but 
social standing, and its value may be compared to the 
white man's estimate of pink pearls. Diamond-cut- 
ters seldom spend more than two weeks in polishing 
a good stone. An Indian would spend thirtv days in 
perfecting a single bit of shell into fine v.ampum. 
Radisson's triends had ornamented him tor the teast 
in order to win the respect of the Mohawks for the 
French bov. Striking his hatchet through a kettle ot 
sagamite to signify thus would he break peace to all 
Radisson's foes, the old Iroquois warrior made a 
speech to the assembled guests. The guests clapped 
their hands and shouted, " Chagon, Orimha! — Be 
merry, Pierre ! " The Frenchman had been formally 
adopted as a Mohawk. 

The forests were now painted in all the glories of 
autumn. All the creatures of the woodlands shook off 
c 



i8 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

the drowsy laziness of summer and came down from 
the uplands seeking haunts for winter retreat. Moose 
and deer were on the move. Beaver came splashing 
down-stream to plaster up their wattled homes before 
frost. Bear and lynx and marten, all were restless as 
the autumn winds instinct with coming storm. This 
is the season when the Indian sets out to hunt and 
fight. Furnished with clothing, food, and firearms, 
Radisson left the Mohawk Valley with three hunters. 
By the middle of August, the rind of the birch is in 
perfect condition for peeling. The first thing the 
hunters did was to slit off the bark of a thick-girthed 
birch and with cedar linings make themselves a skiff. 
Then they prepared to lay up a store of meat for the 
winter's war-raids. Before ice forms a skim across the 
still pools, nibbled chips betray where a beaver colony 
is at work ; so the hunters began setting beaver traps. 
One night as they were returning to their wigwam, 
there came through the leafy darkness the weird sound 
of a man singing. It was a solitary Algonquin captive, 
who called out that he had been on the track of a 
bear since daybreak. He probably belonged to some 
well-known Iroquois, for he was welcomed to the 
camp-fire. The sight of a flice from Three Rivers 
roused the Algonquin's memories of his northern 
home. In the noise of the crackling fire, he succeeded 
in telling Radisson, without being overheard by the 



RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE 19 

Iroquois, that he had been a captive for two years and 
longed to escape. 

" Do you love the French ? " the Algonquin asked 
Radisson. 

" Do you love the Algonquin ? " returned Radisson, 
knowing they were watched. 

"As I do my own nation." Then leaning across 
to Radisson, " Brother — white man ! — Let us escape ! 
The Three Rivers — it is not far off! Will you live 
like a Huron in bondage, or have your liberty with the 
French ? " Then, lowering his voice, " Let us kill all 
three this night when they are asleep ! " 

From such a way of escape, the French youth held 
back. The Algonquin continued to urge him. By 
this time, Radisson must have heard from returning 
Iroquois warriors that thev had slain the governor ot 
Three Rivers, Duplessis-Kerbodot, and eleven other 
P'renchmen, among whom was the husband of Radis- 
son's eldest sister, Marguerite.^ 

While Radisson was still hesitating, the suspicious 
Iroquois demanded what so much whispering was 
about; but the alert Algonquin promptly quieted 
their fears by trumping up some hunting story. 

^ I have throughout followed Mr. Suite's correction of the name of this governor. 
The mistake followed by Parkman, Tanguay, and others — it seems — was first made 
in 1820, and has-been fiiithfuUy copied since. Elsewhere will be found Mr. Suite's 
complete elucidation of the hopeless dark in which all writers have involved Radisson's 
family. 



20 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Wearied from their day's hunt, the three Mohawks 
slept heavily round the camp-fire. They had not the 
least suspicion of danger, for thev had stacked their 
arms carelessly against the trees of the forest. Terri- 
fied lest the Algonquin should attempt to carry out 
his threat, Radisson pretended to be asleep. Rising 
noiselessly, the Algonquin sat down by the fire. The 
Mohawks slept on. The Algonquin gave Radisson a 
push. The French boy looked up to see the Algon- 
quin studying the postures of the sleeping forms. The 
dying fire glimmered like a blotch of blood under the 
trees. Stepping stealthy as a cat over the sleeping 
men, the Indian took possession of their firearms. 
Drawn by a kind of horror, Radisson had risen. The 
Algonquin thrust one of the tomahawks into the 
French lad's hands and pointed without a word at 
the three sleeping Mohawks. Then the Indian be- 
gan the black work. The Mohawk nearest the fire 
never knew that he had been struck, and died without 
a sound. Radisson tried to imitate the relentless 
Algonquin, but, unnerved with horror, he bungled the 
blow and lost hold of the hatchet just as it struck the 
Mohawk's head. The Iroquois sprang up with a 
shout that awakened the third man, but the Algonquin 
was ready. Radisson's blow proved fatal. The vic- 
tim reeled back dead, and the third man was already 
despatched by the Algonquin. 



RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE 21 

Radisson was free. It was a black deed that freed 
hini, hut not half so black as the deeds perpetrated 
in civilized wars for less cause ; and for that deed 
Radisson was to pay swift retribution. 

Taking the scalps as trophies to attest his word, the 
Algonquin threw the bodies into the river. He seized 
all the belongings ot the dead men but one gun and then 
launched out with Radisson on the river. The French 
youth was conscience-stricken. " I was sorry to have 
been in such an encounter/' he writes, " but it was 
too late to repent." Under cover of the night mist 
and shore foliage, they slipped away with the current. 
At first dawn streak, while the mist still hid them, 
they landed, carried their canoe to a sequestered spot 
in the dense forest, and lay hidden under the upturned 
skiff all that day, tormented by swarms of mosquitoes 
and flies, but not daring to move from concealment. 
At nightfall, they again launched down-stream, keep- 
inn; always in the shadows of the shore till mist and 
darkness shrouded them, then sheering ofl-' for mid- 
current, where they paddled tor dear life. Where 
camp-fires glimmered on the banks, they glided past 
with motionless paddles. Across Lake Champlain, 
across the Richelieu, over long portages where every 
shadow took the shape of an ambushed Iroquois, for 
fourteen nights they travelled, when at last with 
many windings and false alarms they swept out 



22 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

on the wide surface of Lake St. Peter in the St. 
Lawrence. 

Within a day's journey of Three Rivers, they were 
really in greater danger than they had been in the 
forests ot Lake Champlain. Iroquois had infested 
that part of the St. Lawrence for more than a year. 
The forest of the south shore, the rush-grown marshes, 
the wooded islands, all afforded impenetrable hiding. 
It was four in the morning when they reached Lake 
St. Peter. Concealing their canoe, they withdrew to 
the woods, cooked their breakfast, covered the fire, and 
lay down to sleep. In a couple of hours the Algon- 
quin impatiently wakened Radisson and urged him 
to cross the lake to the north shore on the Three 
Rivers side. Radisson warned the Indian that the 
Iroquois were ever lurking about Three Rivers. The 
Indian would not wait till sunset. "Let us go," he 
said. " We are past fear. Let us shake off the yoke 
of these whelps that have killed so many French and 
black robes (priests). ... If you come not now 
that we are so near, I leave you, and will tell the gov- 
ernor you were afraid to come." 

Radisson's judgment was overruled by the impatient 
Indian. They pushed their skiff out from the rushes. 
The water lay calm as a sea of silver. They paddled 
directly across to get into hiding on the north shore. 
Halfway across Radisson, who was at the bow, called 



RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE 2j 

out that he saw shadows on the water ahead. The 
Indian stood up and dechired that the shadow was the 
reflection of a flying bird. Barely had they gone a 
boat length when the shadows multiplied. They were 
the reflections of Iroquois ambushed among the rushes. 
Heading the canoe back for the south shore, they 
raced for their lives. The Iroquois pursued in their 
own boats. About a mile from the shore, the strength 
of the fugitives fagged. Knowing that the Iroquois 
were gaining fast, Radisson threw out the loathsome 
scalps that the Algonquin had persisted in carrying. 
By that strange fatality which seems to follow crime, 
instead of sinking, the hairy scalps floated on the sur- 
face of the water back to the pursuing Iroquois. 
Shouts of rage broke from the warriors. Radisson's 
skiflT was so near the south shore that he could see the 
pebbled bottom of the lake ; but the water was too 
deep to wade and too clear for a dive, and there was no 
driftwood to afl'ord hiding. Then a crash of musketry 
trom the Iroquois knocked the bottom out of the 
canoe. The Algonquin fell dead with two bullet vyounds 
in his head and the canoe gradually filled, settled, and 
sank, with the young Frenchman clinging to the cross- 
bar mute as stone. Just as it disappeared under water, 
Radisson was seized, and the dead Algonquin was 
thrown into the Mohawk boats. 

Radisson alone remained to pay the penalty of a 



24 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

double crime ; and he might well have prayed for the 
boat to sink. The victors shouted their triumph. 
Hurrying ashore, they kindled a great fire. They 
tore the heart from the dead Algonquin, transfixed the 
head on a pike, and cast the mutilated body into the 
flames for those cannibal rites in which savages thought 
they gained courage by eating the flesh of their ene- 
mies. Radisson was rifled of clothes and arms, trussed 
at the elbows, roped round the waist, and driven with 
blows back to the canoes. There were other captives 
among the Mohawks. As the canoes emerged from 
the islands, Radisson counted one hundred and fifty 
Iroquois warriors, with two French captives, one 
white woman, and seventeen Hurons. Flaunting from 
the canoe prows were the scalps of eleven Algonquins. 
The victors fired off their muskets and shouted 
defiance until the valley rang. As the seventy-five 
canoes turned up the Richelieu River for the country 
of the Iroquois, hope died in the captive Hurons and 
there mingled with the chant of the Mohawks' war- 
songs, the low monotonous dirge of the prisoners : — 

" If I die, I die valiant ! 
I go without fear 
To that land where brave men 
Have gone long before me — 
If I die, I die valiant." 

Twelve miles up the Richelieu, the Iroquois landed to 



RADTSSON'S FIRST VOYAGE 25 

canip. The prisoners were pegged out on the sand, 
elbows trussed to knees, each captive tied to a post. 
In this fashion they hiy every night ot encampment, 
tortured by sand-flies that they were powerless to 
drive off. At the entrance to the Mohawk village, 
a yoke was fastened to the captives' necks by placing 
pairs of saplings one on each side down the line 
of prisoners. By the rope round the waist of the 
foremost prisoner, they were led slowly between the 
lines of tormentors. The captives were ordered to 
sing. If one refused or showed fear, a Mohawk 
struck off a finger with a hatchet, or tore the pris- 
oners' nails out, or thrust red-hot irons into the 
muscles of the bound arms.^ As Radisson ap- 
peared, he was recognized with shouts ot rage by 
the friends of the murdered Mohawks. Men, 
women, and children armed with rods and skull- 
crackers — leather bags loaded with stones — rushed 
on the slowly moving file of prisoners. 

" They began to cry from both sides," says Radis- 
son ; " we marching one after another, environed with 

1 If there were not corroborative testimony, one might suspect the excited Ficnch 
lad of gross exaggeration in his account of Iroquois tortures ; but the Jesuits more than 
confirm the worst that Radisson relates. Bad as these torments were, they wtre 
equalled by the deeds of white troops from civilized cities in the nineteenth century. 
A band of Montana scouts came on the body of a comrade horribly mutilated by the 
Indians. They caught the culprits a few days afterwards. Though the government 
report has no account of what happpened, traders say thq bodies of the guilty Indians 
were found skinned and scalped by the white trpops. 



26 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

people to witness that hideous sight, which seriously 
may be called the image of Hell in this world." 

The prisoners moved mournfully on. The Hurons 
chanted their death dirge. The Mohawk women 
uttered screams of mockery. Suddenly there broke 
from the throng of onlookers the Iroquois family 
that had adopted Radisson. Pushing through the 
crew of torturers, the mother caught Radisson by the 
hair, calling him by the name of her dead son, 
" Orimha ! Orimha ! " She cut the thongs that bound 
him to the poles, and wresting him free shoved him to 
her husband, who led Radisson to their own lodge. 

" Thou fool," cried the old chief, " thou wast my 
son ! Thou makest thyself an enemy ! Thou lovest 
us not, though we saved thy life ! Wouldst kill me, 
too ? " Then, with a rough push to a mat on the 
ground, " Chagon — now, be merry! It's a merry 
business you've got into ! Give him something to 
eat ! " 

Trembling with fear, young Radisson put as bold a 
face on as he could and made a show of eating what 
the squaw placed before him. He was still relating 
his adventures when there came a roar of anger from 
the Mohawks outside, who had discovered his absence 
from the line. A moment later the rabble broke into 
the lodge. Jostling the friendly chief aside, the 
Mohawk warriors carried Radisson back to the orgies 



RADTSSON'S FIRST VOYAGE 27 

of the torture. 1 he prisoners had been taken out of 
the stocks and placed on several scaffoldings. One 
poor Frenchman tell to the ground bruised and unable 
to rise. The Iroquois tore the scalp troni his head 
and threw him into the fire. That was Radisson's 
first glimpse of what was in store tor him. Then he, 
too, stood on the scaffoldingamong the other prisoners, 
who never ceased singing their death song. In the 
midst of these horrors — diableries^ the Jesuits called 
them — as if the very elements had been moved with 
pity, there burst over the darkened forest a terrific 
hurricane of hail and rain. This put out the fires and 
drove all the tormentors away but a few impish 
children, who staved to pluck nails from the hands 
and feet of the captives and shoot arrows with barbed 
points at the naked bodies. Every iniquity that 
cruelty could invent, these children practised on the 
captives. Red-hot spears were brought from the 
lodge fires and thrust into the prisoners. The 
mutilated finger ends were ground between stones. 
Thongrs were twisted round wrists and ankles, bv 
sticks put through a loop, till flesh was cut to the 
bone. As the rain ceased falling, a woman, who was 
probablv the wife of one oi the murdered Mohawks, 
brought her little boy to cut one of Radisson's fingers 
with a flint stone. The child was too young and ran 
away from the gruesome task. 



28 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Gathering darkness fell over the horrible spectacle. 
The exhausted captives, some in a delirium from pain, 
others unconscious, were led to separate lodges, or 
dragged over the ground, and left tied for the night. 
The next morning all were returned to the scaffolds, 
but the first day had glutted the Iroquois appetite for 
tortures. The friendly family was permitted to ap- 
proach Radisson. The mother brought him food and 
told him that the Council Lodse had decided not to 
kill him for that day — they wanted the young white 
warrior for their own ranks ; but even as the cheer- 
ing hope was uttered, came a brave with a pipe of 
live coals, in which he thrust and held Radisson's 
thumb. No sooner had the tormentor left than the 
woman bound up the burn and oiled Radisson's 
wounds. He suffered no abuse that day till night, 
when the soles of both feet were burned. The ma- 
jority of the captives were flung into a great bonfire. 
On the third day of torture he almost lost his life. 
First came a child to gnaw at his fingers. Then a 
man appeared armed for the ghastly work of mutila- 
tion. Both these the Iroquois father of Radisson sent 
away. Once, when none of the friendly family hap- 
pened to be near, Radisson was seized and bound for 
burning, but by chance the lighted faggot scorched his 
executioner. A friendly hand slashed the thongs that 
bound him, and he was drawn back to the scaffold. 



RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE 29 

Past caring whether he lived or died, and in too 
great agony trom the burns of his feet to realize where 
he was going, Radisson was conducted to the Cireat 
Council. Sixty old men sat on a circle of mats, 
smoking, round the central fire. Before them stood 
seven other captives. Radisson only was still bound. 
A gust of wind from the opening lodge door cleared 
the smoke for an instant and there entered Radisson's 
Indian father, clad in the regalia of a mighty chief. 
Toinahawk and calumet and medicine-bag were in his 
hands. He took his place in the circle of councillors. 
Judgment was to be given on the remaining prisoners. 

After passing the Council Pipe from hand to hand 
in solemn silence, the sachems prepared to give their 
views. One arose, and offering the smoke of incense 
to the tour winds of heaven to invoke witness to the 
justice of the trial, gave his opinion on the matter of 
life or death. Each of the chiefs in succession spoke. 
Without anv warning whatever, one chief rose and 
summarilv tomahawked three of the captives. That 
had been the sentence. The rest were driven, like 
sheep for the shambles, to life-long slaverv. 

Radisson w^as left last. His case was important. 
He had sanctioned the murder of three Mohawks. 
Not for a moment since he was recaptured had thev 
dared to untie the hands ot so dan^ijerous a prisoner. 
Amid deathly silence, the Irocpiois father stood up. 



so PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Flinging down medicine-bag, fur robe, wampum belts, 
and tomahawk, he pointed to the nineteen scars upon 
his side, each of which signified an enemy slain by his 
own hand. Then the old Mohawk broke into one 
of those impassioned rhapsodies of eloquence which 
delighted the savage nature, calling back to each of the 
warriors recollection of victories for the Iroquois. 
His eyes took fire from memory of heroic battle, 
The councillors shook off their imperturbable gravity 
and shouted "Ho, ho!" Each man of them had a 
memory of his part in those past glories. And as 
they applauded, there glided into the wigwam the 
mother, singing some battle-song of valor, dancing 
and gesticulating round and round the lodge in dizzy, 
serpentine circlings, that illustrated in pantomime 
those battles of long ago. Gliding ghostily from the 
camp-fire to the outer dark, she suddenly stopped, 
stood erect, advanced a step, and with all her might 
threw one belt of priceless wampum at the councillors' 
feet, one necklace over the prisoner's head. 

Before the applause could cease or the councillors' 
ardor cool, the adopted brother sprang up, hatchet in 
hand, and sang of other victories. Then, with a deli- 
cacy of etiquette which white pleaders do not always 
observe, father and son withdrew from the Council 
Lodge to let the jury deliberate. The old sachems 
were disturbed. They had been moved more than their 



RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE 31 

wont. Twenty withdrew to confer. Dusk gathered 
deeper and deeper ov^er the forests of the Mohawk 
Valley. Tawny faces came peering at the doors, 
waiting for the decision. Outsiders tore the skins 
from the walls of the lodge that they, too, might wit- 
ness the memorable trial of the boy prisoner. Sachem 
after sachem rose and spoke. Tobacco was sacrificed 
to the fire-god. Would the relatives of the dead 
Mohawks consider the wampum belts full compen- 
sation? Could the Iroquois suffer a youth to live 
who had joined the murderers of the Mohawks ? 
Could the Mohawks afford to offend the great 
Iroquois chief who was the French youth's friend ? 
As they deliberated, the other councillors returned, 
accompanied bv all the members of Radisson's friendly 
tamilv. Again the father sano; and spoke. This time 
when he finished, instead of sitting down, he caught 
the necklace of wampum from Radisson's neck, threw 
it at the feet of the oldest sachem, cut the captive's 
bonds, and, amid shouts of applause, set the white 
youth free. 

One of the incomprehensible things to civilization 
is how a white man cmi degenerate to savagery. 
Young Radisson's life is an illustration. In the first 
transports of his freedom, with the Mohawk women 
dancing and singing around him, the men shouting, he 



32 



PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 



leaped up, oblivious of pain ; but when the flush of 
ecstasy had passed, he sank to the mat of the Iroquois 
lodge, and he was unable to use his burned feet for more 
than a month. During this time the Iroquois dressed 
his wounds, brought him the choice portions of the 
hunt, gave him clean clothing purchased at Orange 
(Albany), and attended to his wants as if he had been 




Albany, from an Old Print. 



a prince. No doubt the bright eves of the swarthy 
young French boy moved to pity the hearts of the 
Mohawk mothers, and his courage had won him favor 
among the warriors. He was treated like a king. 
The women waited upon him like idaves, and the men 
gave him presents of firearms and ammunition — the 
Indian's most precious possessions. Between flattered 



RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE 33 

vanity and indolence, other white men, similarly 
treated, have lost their self-respect. Beckworth, of 
the Missouri, became to all intents and purposes a 
savage ; and Bird, of the Blackteet, degenerated lower 
than the Indians, Other Frenchmen captured from 
the St. Lawrence, and white women taken from the 
New England colonies, became so enamored of savage 
life that they refused to leave the Indian lodges when 
peace had liberated them. Not so Radisson. Though 
only seventeen, flattered vanity never caused him to 
forget the gratitude he owed the Mohawk family. 
Though he relates his life with a frankness that leaves 
nothing untold, he never at any time returned treach- 
ery for kindness. The verv chivalry of the French 
nature endangered him all the more. Would he for- 
get his manhood, his birthright of a superior race, his 
inheritance of nobility from a family that stood fore- 
most among the noblesse of New France? 

The spring of 1653 came with unloosening of the 
rivers and stirring of the forest sap and fret of the 
warrior blood. Radisson's Iroquois father held great 
feasts in which he heaved up the hatchet to break the 
kettle of sagamite against all enemies. Would Radis- 
son go on the war-path with the brav^es, or stay at 
home with the women and so lose the respect of the 
tribe .^ In the hope of coming again within reach of 



34 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Three Rivers, he offered to join the Iroquois in their 
wars. The Mohawks were delighted with his spirit, 
but they feared to lose their young warrior. Accept- 
ing his offer, they refused to let him accompany them 
to Quebec, but assigned him to a band of young 
braves, who were to raid the border-lands between the 
Huron country of the Upper Lakes and the St. Law- 
rence. This was not what Radisson wanted, but he 
could not draw back. There followed months of 
wild wanderings round the regions of Niagara. The 
band of young braves passed dangerous places with 
great precipices and a waterfall, where the river w^as a 
mile wide and unfrozen. Radisson was constrained 
to witness many acts against the Eries, which must 
have one of two effects on white blood, — either turn 
the white man into a complete savage, or disgust him 
utterly with savage life. Leaving the Mohawk village 
amid a blare of guns and shouts, the young braves on 
their maiden venture passed successively through the 
lodges of Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas, and Cayugas, 
where they were feasted almost to death by the Iro- 
quois Confederacy.^ Then they marched to the vast 
wilderness of snow-padded forests and heaped windfall 
between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. 

Snow still lay in great drifts under the shadow of 

1 Radisson puts the Senecas before the Cayugas, which is different from the order 
given by the Jesuits. 



RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE 2S 

hemlock and spruce ; and the braves skinimed for- 
ward v'inged with the noiseless speed of snow-shoes. 
When the snow became too soft from thaw for snow- 
shoes, they paused to build themselves a skiff. It 
was too early to peel the bark off the birch, so they 
made themselves a dugout of the walnut tree, The 
wind changed trom north to south, clearing the lakes 
of ice and filling the air with the earthv smells of up- 
bursting growth, "There was such a thawing," 
writes Radisson, " ye little brookes flowed like rivers, 
which made us embark to wander over that sweet sea." 
Lounging in their skiff all dav, carried from shore to 
shore with the waves, and sleeping round camp-fires 
on the sand each night, the young braves luxuriated 
in all the delights of sunny idleness and spring life. 
But this was not war. It was plav, and play of the 
sort that weans the white man from civilization to 
savagery. 

One day a scout, who had climbed to the top of 
a tree, espied two strange squaws. They were of a 
hostile tribe. The Mohawk bloodthirst was up as ? 
wolf's at the sight of lambs. In vain Radisson tried 
to save the women by warning the Iroquois that if there 
were women, there must be men, too, who would exact 
vengeance for the squaws' death. The young braves 
only laid their plans the more carefully for his warning 
and massacred the entire encampment. Prisoners were 



36 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

taken, but when food became scarce they were brutally 
knocked on the head. These tribes had never heard 
guns before, and at the sound of shots fled as from dia- 
bolical enemies. It was an easy matter for the young 
braves in the course of a few weeks to take a score of 
scalps and a dozen prisoners. At one place more than 
two hundred beaver were trapped. At the end of the 
raid, the booty was equally divided. Radisson asked 
that the woman prisoner be given to him ; and he 
saved her from torture and death on the return to the 
Mohawks by presenting her as a slave to his Indian 
mother. All his other share of booty he gave to the 
friendly family. The raid was over. He had failed 
of his main object in joining it. He had not escaped. 
But he had made one important gain. His valor had 
reestablished the confidence of the Indians so that 
when they went on a free-booting expedition against 
the whites of the Dutch settlements at Orange (Albany), 
Radisson was taken with them. Orange, or Albany, 
consisted at that time of some fifty thatched log-houses 
surrounded by a settlement of perhaps a hundred 
and fifty farmers. This raid was bloodless. The 
warriors looted the farmers' cabins, emptied their cup- 
boards, and drank their beer cellars dry to the last 
drop. Once more Radisson kept his head. While 
the braves entered Fort Orange roaring drunk, Radis- 
son was alert and sober. A drunk Indian falls an easy 



RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE 



37 



prey in the bartering of pelts. The Iroquois wanted 
guns. The Dutch wanted pelts. The whites treated 
the savages like kings ; and the Mohawks marched 
from house to house feasting of the best. Radisson 
was dressed in garnished buckskin and had been 
painted like a Mohawk. Suspecting some design to 




The Battery, New York, in Radisson's Time. 

escape, his Iroquois friends never left him. The 
young Frenchman now saw white men for the first 
time in almost two years ; but the speech that he 
heard was in a strange tongue. As Radisson went 
into the fort, he noticed a soldier among the Dutch. 
At the same instant the soldier recognized him as a 
Frenchman, and oblivious of the Mohawks' presence 



38 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

blurted out his discovery in Iroquois dialect, vowing 
that for all the paint and grease, this youth was a white 
man below. The fellow's blundering might have 
cost Radisson's life ; but the youth had not been a 
captive among crafty Mohawks for nothing. Radis- 
son feigned surprise at the accusation. That quieted 
the Mohawk suspicions and they were presently deep in 
the beer pots of the Dutch. Again the soldier spoke, 
this time in French. It was the first time that Radis- 
son had heard his native tongue for months. He 
answered in French. At that the soldier emitted 
shouts of delight, for he, too, was French, and these 
strangers in an alien land threw their arms about each 
other like a pair of long-lost brothers with exclama- 
tions of joy too great for words. 

From that moment Radisson became the Hon of 
Fort Orange. The women dragged him to their 
houses and forced more dainties on him than he could 
eat. He was conducted from house to house in 
triumph, to the amazed delight of the Indians. The 
Dutch offered to ransom him at any price ; but that 
would have exposed the Dutch settlement to the 
resentment of the Mohawks and placed Radisson 
under heavy obligation to people who were the ene- 
mies of New France. Besides, his honor was pledged 
to return to his Indian parents ; and it was a long way 
home to have to sail to Europe and back again to 



RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE 



39 



Quebec. Perhaps, too, there was deep in his heart 
what he did not reahze — a rooted love for the wilds 
that was to follow him all through life. By the 
devious course of captivity, he had tasted of a new 
freedom and could not give it up. He declined the 
offer of the Dutch. In two days he was back among 
the Mohawks ten times more a hero than he had 
ever been. Mother and sisters were his slaves. 

But between love of the wilds and love of bar- 
barism is a wide difference. He had not been back 
for two weeks when that glimpse of crude civilization 
at Orange recalled torturing memories of the French 
home in Three Rivers. The filthy food, the smoky 
lodges, the cruelties of the Mohawks, filled him with 
loathing. The nature of the white man, which had 
been hidden under the grease and paint of the savage 
— and in danger of total eclipse — now came upper- 
most. With Radisson, to think was to act. He 
determined to escape if it cost him his life. 

Taking only a hatchet as if he were going to cut 
wood, Radisson left the Indian lodge early one morn- 
ing in the fall of 1653. Once out of sight from 
the village, he broke into a run, following the trail 
through the dense forests of the Mohawk Valley 
toward Fort Orange. On and on he ran, all that day, 
without pause to rest or eat, without backward glance, 
with eye ever piercing through the long leafy vistas 



40 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

of the forest on the watch for the fresh-chipped bark 
of the trees that guided his course, or the narrow 
indurated path over the spongy mould worn by run- 
ning warriors. And when night filled the forest with 
the hoot of owl, and the far, weird cries of wild creatures 
on the rove, there sped through the aisled columns 
of star light and shadow, the ghostly figure of the 
French boy slim, and lithe as a willow, with muscles tense 
as ironwood, and step silent as the mountain-cat. All 
that night he ran without a single stop. Chill day- 
break found him still staggering on, over rocks slippery 
with the night frost, over windfall tree on tree in a 
barricade, through brawling mountain brooks where 
his moccasins broke the skim of ice at the edge, past 
rivers where he half waded, half swam. He was now 
faint from want of food ; but fear spurred him on. 
The morning air was so cold that he found it better 
to run than rest. By four of the afternoon he came 
to a clearing in the forest, where was the cabin of 
a settler. A man was chopping wood. Radisson 
ascertained that there were no Iroquois in the cabin, 
and, hiding in it, persuaded the settler to carry a 
message to Fort Orange, two miles farther on. While 
he waited Indians passed the cabin, singing and shout- 
ing. The settler's wife concealed him behind sacks 
of wheat and put out all lights. Within an hour 
came a rescue party from Orange, who conducted 



RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE 



41 



him safely to the fort. For three days Radisson hid 
in Orange, while the Mohawks wandered through 
the fort, calling him by name. 

Gifts of money from the Jesuit, Poncet, and from a 
Dutch merchant, enabled Radisson to take ship from 
Orange to New York, and from New York to Europe. 




This view of Fort Amsterdam on the Manhattan is copied from an ancient 
engraving executed in Holland. The fort was erected in 1623 but 
finished upon the above model by Governor Van Twiller in 1635. 

Pere Poncet had been captured by the Mohawks the 
precedino; summer, but had escaped to Orange.' Em- 
barking on a small sloop, Radisson sailed down the 
Hudson to New York, which then consisted of some 
five hundred houses, with stores, barracks, a stone church, 



^ The fact that Radisson confessed his sins to this priest seems pretty well to prove 
that Pierre was a Catholic and not a Protestant, as has been so often stated. 



42 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

and a dilapidated fort. Central Park was a forest ; 
goats and cows pastured on what is now Wall Street ; 
and to east and west was a howling wilderness of 
marsh and woods. After a stay of three weeks, 
Radisson embarked for Amsterdam, which he reached 
in January, 1654. 



o^*- 



>> 




CHAPTER II 

1657-1658 

RADISSON'S SECOND VOYAGE 

Radisson returns to Quebec, where he joins the Jesuits to go to the 
Iroquois Mission — He witnesses the Massacre of the Hurons 
among the Thousand Islands — Besieged by the Iroquois, they pass 
the Winter as Prisoners of War — Conspiracy to massacre the 
French foiled by Radisson. 

From Amsterdam Radisson took ship to Rochelle. 
Here he found himself a stranger in his native hind. 
All his kin of whom there is any record — Pierre 
Radisson, his father, Madeline Henault, his mother, 
Marguerite and Fran9oise, his elder and younger sisters, 
his uncle and aunt, with their daughter, Elizabeth — 
were now living at Three Rivers in New France.^ 

1 The uncle, Pierre Esprit Radisson, is the one with whom careless writers have 
confused the voung hero, owing to identity ot name. Madeline Henault has been 
described as the explorer's first wife, notwithstanding genealogical impossibilities which 
make the explorer's daughter thirty-six years old 'oefore he was seventeen. Even the 
infallible Tanguay trips on Radisson's genealogy. I have before me the complete record 
of the family taken from the parish registers of Three Rivers and Quebec, by the inde- 
fatigable Mr. Suite, whose explanation of the case is this : that Radisson's mother, 
Madeline Henault, first married Sebastien Hayet, of St. Malo, to whom was born 
Marguerite about 1630; that her second husband was Pierre Esprit Radisson of Paris, 
to whom were born our hero and the sisters Kranijoise and Elizabeth. 

43 



44 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Embarking with the fishing fleet that yearly left 
France for the Grand Banks, Radisson came early 
in the spring of 1654 to Isle Percee at the mouth of 
the St. Lawrence. He was still a week's journey from 
Three Rivers, but chance befriended him. Algon- 
quin canoes were on the way up the river to war on 
the Iroquois. Joining the Indian canoes, he slipped 
past the hilly shores of the St. Lawrence and in five 
days was between the main bank on the north side 
and the muddy shallows of the Isle of Orleans. 
Sheering out where the Montmorency roars over a 
precipice in a shining cataract, the canoes glided across 
St. Charles River among the forests of masts heaving 
to the tide below the beetling heights of Cape Dia- 
mond, Quebec. 

It was May, 1651, when he had first seen the turrets 
and spires of Quebec glittering on the hillside in the 
sun; it was May, 1652, that the Iroquois had carried 
him off from Three Rivers; and it was May, 1654, 
when he came again to his own. He was welcomed 
back as from the dead. Changes had taken place 
in the interval of his captivity. A truce had been 
arranged between the Iroquois and the French. 
Now that the Huron missions had been wiped out by 
Iroquois wars, the Jesuits regarded the truce as a 
Divine provision for a mission among the Iroquois. 
The year that Radisson escaped from the Mohawks, 



RADISSON'S SFXOND VOYAGE 45 

Jesuit priests had gone among them. A still greater 
change that was to affect his life more vitally had 
taken place in the Radisson family. The year that 
Radisson had been captured, the outraged people of 
Three Rivers had seized a Mohawk chief and burned 
him to death. In revenge, the Mohawks murdered 
the governor of Three Rivers and a company of 
Frenchmen. Among the slain was the husband of 
Radisson's sister, Marguerite. When Radisson re- 
turned, he found that his widowed sister had married 
Medard Chouart Groseillers, a famous fur trader of 
New France, who had passed his youth as a lay helper 
to the Jesuit missions of Lake Huron. ^ Radisson was 
now doubly bound to the Jesuits by gratitude and 
family ties. Never did pagan heart hear an evangel 
more gladly than the Mohawks heard the Jesuits. 
The priests were welcomed with acclaim, led to the 
Council Lodge, and presented with belts of wampum. 
Not a suspicion of foul play seems to have entered the 
Jesuits' mind. When the Iroquois proposed to in- 
corporate into the Confederacy the remnants of the 
Hurons, the Jesuits discerned nothing in the plan 
but the most excellent means to convert pagan Iro- 

1 I have throughout referred to Medard Chouart, Sifiur des Groseillers, as simply 
"Groseillers," because that is the name referring to him most commonly used in the 
State Papers and old histories. He was from Charlv-Saint-Cyr, near Meaux, and is 
supposed to have been born about 1 62 1. His first wife was Helen Martin, daughter 
of Abraham Martin, who gave his name to the Plains of Abraham. 



46 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

quois by Christian Hurons. Having gained an inch, 
the Iroquois demanded the proverbial ell. They asked 
that a French settlement be made in the Iroquois 
country. The Indians wanted a supply of firearms 
to war against all enemies ; and with a French settle- 
ment miles away from help, the Iroquois could wage 
what war they pleased against the Algonquins without 
fear of reprisals from Quebec — the settlement of 
white men among hostiles would be hostage of gen- 
erous treatment from New France. Of these designs, 
neither priests nor governor had the slightest suspi- 
cion. The Jesuits were thinking only of the Iroquois' 
soul ; the French, of peace with the Iroquois at any 
cost. 

In 1656 Major Dupuis and fifty Frenchmen had 
established a French colony among the Iroquois. ^ 
The hardships of these pioneers form no part of 
Radisson's life, and are, therefore, not set down here. 
Peace not bought by a victory is an unstable founda- 
tion for Indian treaty. The Mohawks were jealous 
that their confederates, the Onondagas, had obtained 

1 This is the story of Onondaga which Parkman has told. Unfortunately, when 
Parkman's account was written, Radhson'' s Journals were unknown and Mr. Parkman 
had to rely entirely on the Letters of Marie de V Incarnation and the Jesuit Relations. 
After the discovery of Radisson's Journals, Parkman added a footnote to his account 
of Onondaga, quoting Radisson in confirmation. If Radisson may be quoted to cor- 
roborate Parkman, Radisson may surely be accepted as authentic. At the same time, 
I have compared this journal with Father Ragueneau's of the same party ; and the two 
tally in every detail. 



RADISSON'S SECOND VOYAGE 47 

the French settlement. In 1657, eighty Iroquois 
came to Quebec to escort one hundred Huron refu- 
gees back to Onondaga for adoption into the Confed- 
eracy. These Hurons were Christians, and the two 
Jesuits, Paul Ragueneau and Francois du Peron, 
were appointed to accompany them to their new abode. 
Twenty young Frenchmen joined the party to seek 
their fortunes at the new settlement ; but a man was 
needed who could speak Iroquois. Glad to repay his 
debt to the Jesuits, young Radisson volunteered to go 
as a donn'e^ that is, a lay helper vowed to gratuitous 
services. 

It was midsummer before all preparations had been 
made. On July 26, the party of two hundred, made 
up of twenty Frenchmen, eighty Iroquois, and a hun- 
dred Hurons, filed out of the gates of Montreal, and 
winding round the foot of the mountain followed a 
trail through the forest that took them past the La- 
chine Rapids. The Onondaga voyageurs carried the 
long birch canoes inverted on their shoulders, two 
Indians at each end; and the other Iroquois trotted 
over the rocks with the Frenchmen's baggage on their 
backs. The day was hot, the portage long and slip- 
pery with dank moisture. 7^he Huron children tagged 
and fell behind. At nightfall, thirty of the haughty 
Iroquois lost patience, and throwing down their bun- 
dles made off for Quebec with the avowed purpose 



48 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

of raiding the Algonquins. On the way, they 
paused to scalp three Frenchmen at Montreal, cyni- 
cally explaining that if the French persisted in taking 
Algonquins into their arms, the white men need not be 
surprised if the blow aimed at an Algonquin sometimes 
struck a Frenchman. That act opened the eyes of the 
French to the real meaning of the peace made with the 
Iroquois; but the little colony was beyond recall. 
To insure the safety of the French among the Onon- 
dagas, the French governor at Quebec seized a dozen 
Iroquois and kept them as hostages of good conduct. 

Meanwhile, all was confusion on Lake St. Louis, 
where the last band of colonists had encamped. The 
Iroquois had cast the Frenchmen's baggage on the rocks 
and refused to carry it farther. Leaving the whites 
all embarrassed, the Onondagas hurriedly embarked 
the Hurons and paddled quickly out of sight. The 
act was too suddenly unanimous not to have been 
premeditated. Why had the Iroquois carried the 
Hurons away from the Frenchmen ? Father Rague- 
neau at once suspected some sinister purpose. Tak- 
ing only a single sack of flour for food, he called for 
volunteers among the twenty Frenchmen to embark 
in a leaky, old canoe and follow the treacherous Onon- 
dagas. Young Radisson was one of the first to offer 
himself Six others followed his example ; and the 
seven Frenchmen led by the priest struck across 



RADISSON'S SECOND VOYAGE 49 

the lake, leaving the others to gather up the scattered 
baggage. 

The Onondagas were too deep to reveal their plots 
with seven armed Frenchmen in pursuit. The In- 
dians permitted the French boats to come up with the 
main band. All camped together in the most friendly 
fashion that night; but the next morning one Iroquois 
offered passage in his canoe to one Frenchman, an- 
other Iroquois to another of the whites, and by the 
third day, when they came to Lake St. Francis, the 
old canoe had been abandoned. The French were 
scattered promiscuously among the Iroquois, with no 
two whites in one boat. The Hurons were quicker 
to read the signs of treachery than the French. 
There were rumors of one hundred Mohawks lying in 
ambush at the Thousand Islands to massacre the com- 
ing Hurons. On the morning of August 3 four 
Huron warriors and two women seized a canoe, and to 
the great astonishment of the encampment launched 
out before they could be stopped. Heading the canoe 
back for Montreal, they broke out in a war chant of 
defiance to the Iroquois. 

The Onondagas made no sign, but they evidently 
took council to delay no longer. Again, when they 
embarked, they allowed no two whites in one canoe. 
The boats spread out. Nothing was said to indi- 
cate anything unusual. The lake lay like a silver 

B 



50 



PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 



mirror in the August sun. The water was so clear 
that the Indians frequently paused to spear fish 
lying below on the stones. At places the canoes 
skirted close to the wood-fringed shore, and braves 
landed to shoot wild-fowl. Radisson and Ragueneau 
seemed simultaneously to have noticed the same 
thing. Without any signal, at about four in the after- 
noon, the Onondagas steered their canoes for a wooded 




Paddling past Hostiles. 

island in the middle of the St. Lawrence. With 
Radisson were three Iroquois and a Huron. As the 
canoe grated shore, the bowman loaded his musket 
and sprang into the thicket. Naturally, the Huron 
turned to gaze after the disappearing hunter. In- 
stantly, the Onondaga standing directly behind buried 
his hatchet in the Huron's head. The victim fell 
quivering across Radisson's feet and was hacked to 
pieces by the other Iroquois. Not far along the shore 



RADISSON'S SECOND VOYAGE 51 

from Radisson, the priest was landing. He noticed 
an Iroquois chief approach a Christian Huron girl. 
If the Huron had not been a convert, she might have 
saved her life by becoming one of the chief's many 
slaves ; but she had repulsed the Onondaga pagan. 
As Ragueneau looked, the girl fell dead with her skull 
split by the chief's war-axe. The Hurons on the lake 
now knew what awaited them ; and a cry of terror 
arose from the children. Then a silence of numb 
horror settled over the incoming canoes. The 
women were driven ashore like lambs before wolves ; 
but the valiant Hurons would not die without striking 
one blow at their inveterate and treacherous enemies. 
They threw themselves together back to back, pre- 
pared to fight. For a moment this show of resistance 
drove off the Iroquois. Then the Onondaga chieftain 
rushed forward, protesting that the two murders had 
been a personal quarrel. Striking back his own war- 
riors with a great show of sinceritv, he bade the 
Hurons run for refuge to the top of the hill. No 
sooner had the Hurons broken rank, than there 
rushed from the woods scores of Iroquois, daubed in 
war-paint and shouting their war-cry. This was the 
hunt to which the young braves had dashed from 
the canoes to be in readiness behind the thicket. 
Before the scattered Hurons could get together for 
defence, the Onondagas had closed around the hilltop 



52 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

in a cordon. The priest ran here, there, everywhere, 
— comforting the dying, stopping mutilation, defend- 
ing the women. All the Hurons were massacred 
but one man, and the bodies were thrown into the 
river. With blankets drawn over their heads that 
they might not see, the women huddled together, 
dumb with terror. When the Onondagas turned 
toward the women, the Frenchmen stood with mus- 
kets levelled. The Onondagas halted, conferred, and 
drew off. 

The fight lasted for four hours. Darkness and the 
valor of the little French band saved the women for 
the time. The Iroquois kindled a fire and gathered 
to celebrate their victory. Then the old priest 
took his life in his hands. Borrowing three belts of 
wampum, he left the huddling group of Huron 
women and Frenchmen and marched boldly into the 
circle of hostiles. The lives of all the French and 
Hurons hung by a thread. Ragueneau had been the 
spiritual guide of the murdered tribe for twenty years ; 
and he was now sobbing like a child. The Iroquois 
regarded his grief with sardonic scorn ; but they 
misjudged the manhood below the old priest's tears. 
Ragueneau asked leave to speak. They grunted 
permission. Springing up, he broke into impassioned, 
fearless reproaches of the Iroquois for their treachery. 
Casting one belt of wampum at the Onondaga chief's 



RADISSON'S SECOND VOYAGE S3 

feet, the priest demanded pledges that the massacre 
cease. A second belt was given to register the Onon- 
daga's vow to conduct the women and children safelv 
to the Iroquois country. The third belt was for the 
safety of the French at Onondaga. 

The Iroquois were astonished. They had looked 
for womanish pleadings. They had heard stern 
demands coupled with fearless threats of punishment. 
When Ragueneau sat down, the Onondaga chief 
bestirred himself to counteract the priest's powerful 
impression. Lounging to his feet, the Onondaga im- 
pudently declared that the governor of Quebec had 
instigated the massacre. Ragueneau leaped up with 
a denial that took the lie from the scoundrel's teeth. 
The chief sat down abashed. The Council grunted 
" Ho, ho ! " accepting the wampum and pr.omising 
all that the Jesuit had asked. 

Among the Thousand Islands, the French w^ho had 
remained behind to gather up the baggage again joined 
the Onondagas. They brought with them from the 
Isle of Massacres a poor Huron woman, whom they 
had found lying insensible on a rock. During the 
massacre she had hidden in a hollow tree, where she 
remained for three days. In this region, Radisson 
almost lost his life by hoisting a blanket sail to 
his canoe. The wind drifted the boat so fir out 



54 



PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 



that Radisson had to throw all ballast overboard to 
keep from being swamped. As they turned from 
the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario up the Os- 
wego River for Onondaga, they met other warriors 
of the Iroquois nation. In spite of pledges to the 
priest, the meeting was celebrated by torturing the 
Huron women to entertain the newcomers. Not 
the sufferings of the early Christians in Rome exceeded 
the martyrdom of the Christian Hurons among the 
Onondagas. As her mother mounted the scaffold of 
tortures, a little girl who had been educated by the 
Ursulines of Quebec broke out with loud weeping. 
The Huron mother turned calmly to the child : — 

" Weep not my death, my little daughter ! We 
shall this day be in heaven," said she; "God will pity 
us to all eternity. The Iroquois cannot rob us of 
that." 

As the flames crept about her, her voice was heard 
chanting in the crooning monotone of Indian death 
dirge : " Jesu — have pity on us ! Jesu — have pity 
on us ! " The next moment the child was thrown 
into the flames, repeating the same words. 

The Iroquois recognized Radisson. He sent pres- 
ents to his Mohawk parents, who afterwards played 
an important part in saving the French of Onondaga, 
Having passed the falls, they came to the French 
fort situated on the crest of a hill above a lake. Two 



RADISSON'S SECOND VOYAGE S5 

high towers loopholed for musketry occupied the 
centre of the courtyard. Double walls, trenched 
between, ran round a space large enough to enable the 
French to keep their cattle inside the fort. The voya- 
geurs were welcomed to Onondaga by Major Dupuis, 
fifty Frenchmen, and several Jesuits. 

The pilgrims had scarcely settled at Onondaga be- 
fore signs ot the dangers that were gathering became 
too plain for the blind zeal of the Jesuits to ignore. 
Cayugas, Onondagas, and Senecas, togged out in war- 
gear, swarmed outside the palisades. There was no 
more dissembling of hunger for the Jesuits' evangel. 
The warriors spoke no more soft words, but spent 
their time feasting, chanting war-songs, heaving up the 
war-hatchet against the kettle of sagamite — which 
meant the rupture of peace. Then came four hundred 
Mohawks, who not only shouted their war-songs, but 
built their wigwams before the fort gates and estab- 
lished themselves for the winter like a besieging army. 
That the intent of the entire Confederacy was hostile 
to Onondaga could not be mistaken ; but what was 
holding the Indians back? Why did they delay the 
massacre ? Then Huron slaves brought word to the 
besieged fort of the twelve Iroquois hostages held at 
Ouebec. The fort understood what stayed the 
Iroquois blow. The Confederacy dared not attack 



S6 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 



the isolated fort lest Quebec should take terrible ven- 
geance on the hostages. 

The French decided to send messengers to Quebec 
for instructions before closing navigation cut them off 

for the winter. Thir- 
teen men and one 
Jesuit left the fort the 
first week of Septem- 
ber. Mohawk spies 
knew of the departure 
and lay in ambush at 
each side of the narrow 
river to intercept the 
party ; but the mes- 
sengers eluded the trap 
by striking through the 
forests back from the 
river directly to the St. 
Lawrence. Then the 
little fort closed its 
gates and awaited an 
answer from Quebec. 
Winter settled over 
the land, blocking the 
rivers with ice and the forest trails with drifts of 
snow ; but no messengers came back from Quebec. 
The Mohawks had missed the outgoing scouts i 




Jogues, the Jesuit missionary, who was 
tortured by the Mohawks. From a 
painting in Chateau de Ramezay, 
Montreal. 



RADISSON'S SECOND VOYAGE 57 

but they caught the return coureurs and destroyed 
the letters. Not a soul could leave the fort but 
spies dogged his steps. The Jesuits continued going 
from lodge to lodge, and in this way Onondaga 
gained vague knowledge of the plots outside the 
fort. The French could venture out only at the risk 
of their lives, and spent the winter as closely confined 
as prisoners of war. Of the ten drilled soldiers, nine 
threatened to desert. One night an unseen hand 
plunged through the dark, seized the sentry, and 
dragged him from the gate. The sentry drew his 
sword and shouted, " To arms ! " A band of French- 
men salHed from the gates with swords and muskets. 
In the tussle the sentry was rescued, and gifts were 
sent out in the morning to pacify the wounded Mo- 
hawks. Fortunately the besieged had plenty of food 
inside the stockades ; but the Iroquois knew there 
could be no escape till the ice broke up in spring, and 
were quite willing to exchange ample supplies of corn 
for tobacco and firearms. The Huron slaves who 
carried the corn to the fort acted as spies among the 
Mohawks for the French. 

In the month of February the vague rumors of 
conspiracy crystallized into terrible reality. A dying 
Mohawk confessed to a Jesuit that the Iroquois^ 
Council had determined to massacre half the company 

1 Sec Jesuit Relations, 1 657-1 658. 



58 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

of French and to hold the other half till their own 
Mohawk hostages were released from Quebec. Among 
the hostiles encamped before the gates was Radisson's 
Indian father. This Mohawk was still an influential 
member of the Great Council. He, too, reported that 
the warriors were bent on destroying Onondaga.^ 
What was to be done? No answer had come from 
Quebec, and no aid could come till the spring. The 
rivers were still blocked with ice ; and there were not 
sufficient boats in the fort to carry fifty men down to 
Quebec. " What could we do ? " writes Radisson. 
"We were in their hands. It was as hard to get 
away from them as for a ship in full sea without a 
pilot." 

They at once began constructing two large flat- 
bottomed boats of light enough draft to run the rapids 
in the flood-tide of spring. Carpenters worked hid- 
den in an attic ; but when the timbers were mortised 
together, the boats had to be brought downstairs, 
where one of the Huron slaves caught a glimpse of 
them. Boats of such a size he had never before seen. 
Each was capable of carrying fifteen passengers with 
full complement of baggage. Spring rains were fall- 
ing in floods. The convert Huron had heard the 
Jesuits tell of Noah's ark in the deluge. Returning 
to the Mohawks, he spread a terrifying report of an 

1 Letters of Marie de V Incarnation. 



RADISSON'S SECOND VOYAGE 59 

impending flood and of strange arks of refuge built by 
the white men. Emissaries were appointed to visit the 
French fort; but the garrison had been forewarned. 
Radisson knew of the coming spies from his Indian 
father; and the Jesuits had learned of the Council 
from their converts. Before the spies arrived, the 
French had built a floor over their flatboats, and to 
cover the tresh floor had heaped up a dozen canoes. 
The spies left the fort satisfied that neither a deluge 
nor an escape was impending. Birch canoes would 
be crushed like egg-shells if they were run through 
the ice jams of spring floods. Certain that their 
victims were trapped, the Iroquois were in no haste 
to assault a double-walled fort, where musketry could 
mow them down as they rushed the hilltop. The 
Indian is bravest under cover; so the Mohawks 
spread themselves in ambush on each side of the 
narrow river and placed guards at the falls where any 
boats must be portaged. 

Of what good were the boats? To allav suspicion 
of escape, the Jesuits continued to visit the wigwams.^ 
The French were in despair. They consulted Radis- 
son, who could go among the Mohawks as with a 
charmed life, and who knew the customs of the Con- 
federacy so well. Radisson proposed a wav to out- 
wit the savages. With this plan the priests had 

^ See Ragueneau's account. 



6o PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

nothing to do. To the harum-scarum Radisson 
belong the sole credit and discredit of the escapade. 
On his device hung the lives of fifty innocent men. 
These men must either escape or be massacred. Of 
bloodshed, Radisson had already seen too much ; 
and the youth of twenty-one now no more proposed 
to stickle over the means of victory than generals who 
wear the Victoria cross stop to stickle over means 
to-day. 

Radisson knew that the Indians had implicit faith 
in dreams; so Radisson had a dream. ^ He realized 
as critics of Indian customs fail to understand that 
the fearful privations of savage life teach the crime of 
waste. The Indian will eat the last morsel of food 
set before him if he dies for it. He believes that the 
gods punish waste of food by famine. The belief is 
a religious principle and the feasts — festins a tout 
manger — are a religious act; so Radisson dreamed — 
whether sleeping or waking — that the white men were 
to give a great festival to the Iroquois. This dream 
he related to his Indian father. The Indian like his 
white brother can clothe a vice under religious mantle. 
The Iroquois were gluttonous on a religious principle. 
Radisson's dream was greeted with joy. Coureurs 
ran through the forest, bidding the Mohawks to the 
feast. Leaving ambush of forest and waterfall, the 

1 See Marie de I'' Incarnation and Dr. Dionne's modern monograph. 



RADISSON'S SECOND VOYAGE 



6i 



warriors hastened to the walls of Onondaga. To 
whet their appetite, they were kept waiting outside for 
two whole days. The French took turns in enter- 
taining the waiting guests. Boisterous games, songs, 
dances, and music kept the Iroquois awake and hilari- 




Chateau de Ramezay, Montreal, for years the residence of the governor, 
and later the storehouse of the fur companies. 

ous to the evening of the second day. Inside the fort 
bedlam reigned. Boats w^ere dragged from floors to a 
sally-port at the rear of the courtyard. Here fire- 
arms, ammunition, food, and baggao;e were placed in 
readiness. Guns which could not be taken were 



62 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

burned or broken. Ammunition was scattered in the 
snow. All the stock but one solitary pig, a few 
chickens, and the dogs was sacrificed for the feast, 
and in the barracks a score of men were laboring over 
enormous kettles of meat. Had an Indian spy 
climbed to the top of a tree and looked over the 
palisades, all would have been discovered ; but the 
French entertainers outside kept their guests busy. 
On the evening of the second day a great fire was 
kindled in the outer enclosure, between the two walls. 
The trumpets blew a deafening blast. The Mohawks 
answered with a shout. The French clapped their 
hands. The outer gates were thrown wide open, and 
in trooped several hundred Mohawk warriors, seating 
themselves in a circle round the fire. Another blare 
of trumpets, and twelve enormous kettles of mince- 
meat were carried round the circle of guests. A 
Mohawk chief rose solemnly and gave his deities of 
earth, air, and fire profuse thanks for having brought 
such generous people as the French among the Iro- 
quois. Other chiefs arose and declaimed to their 
hearers that earth did not contain such hosts as the 
French. Before they had finished speaking there 
came a second and a third and a fourth relay of kettles 
round the circle of feasters. Not one Iroquois dared 
to refuse the food heaped before him. By the time 
the kettles of salted fowl and venison and bear had 



RADISSON'S SECOND VOYAGE G^ 

passed round the circle, each Indian was glancing 
furtively sideways to see if his neighbor could still 
eat. He who was compelled to forsake the feast 
first was to become the butt of the company. All 
the while the French kept up a din of drums and 
trumpets and flageolets, dancing and singing and 
shouting to drive off sleep. The eyes of the gorging 
Indians began to roll. Never had they attempted to 
demolish such a banquet. Some shook their heads 
and drew back. Others fell over in the dead sleep that 
results from long fasting and overfeeding and fresh 
air. Radisson was everywhere, urging the Iroquois 
to " Cheer up ! cheer up ! If sleep overcomes you, 
you must awake ! Beat the drum ! Blow the 
trumpet ! Cheer up ! Cheer up ! " 

But the end of the repulsive scene was at hand. 
By midnight the Indians had — in the language of 
the white man — "gone under the mahogany." They 
lay sprawled on the ground in sodden sleep. Per- 
haps, too, something had been dropped in the flesh- 
pots to make their sleep the sounder. Radisson does 
not say no, neither does the priest, and they two were 
the only whites present who have written of the episode.' 

1 This account is drawn mainly from A'aJisson's yournal, partly from Father 
Raguencau, and in one detail from a letter of Marie de P Incarnation. Garneau says 
the fcasters were drugged ; but I cannot find his authority for this, though from my 
knowledge of fur traders' escapes, I fancy it would hardly have been human nature not 
to add a sleeping potion to the kettles. 



64 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

But the French would hardly have been human if 
they had not assured their own safety by drugging 
the feasters. It was a common thing for the fur 
traders of a later period to prevent massacre and 
quell riot by administering a quietus to Indians with 
a few drops of laudanum. 

The French now retired to the inner court. The 
main gate was bolted and chained. Through the loop- 
hole of this gate ran a rope attached to a bell that was 
used to summon the sentry. To this rope the mis- 
chievous Radisson tied the only remaining pig, so that 
when the Indians would pull the rope for admission, 
the noise of the disturbed pig would give the impres- 
sion of a sentry's tramp-tramp on parade. Stuffed 
effigies of soldiers were then stuck about the barracks. 
If a spy climbed up to look over the palisades, he 
would see Frenchmen still in the fort. While Radisson 
was busy with these precautions to delay pursuit, the 
soldiers and priests, led by Major Dupuis, had 
broken open the sally-port, forced the boats through 
sideways, and launched out on the river. Speaking 
in whispers, they stowed the baggage in the flat- 
boats, then brought out skiffs — dugouts to withstand 
the ice jam — for the rest of the company. The night 
was raw and cold. A skim of ice had formed on the 
margins of the river. Through the pitchy darkness 
fell a sleet of rain and snow that washed out the foot- 



RADISSON'S SECOND VOYAGE 6s 

steps of the tugitives. The current of mid-river ran 
a noisy mill-race of ice and log drift ; and the voya- 
^eurs could not see one boat length ahead. 

To men living in savagery come temptations that 
can neither be measured nor judged by civilization. 
To the French at Onondaga came such a temptation 
now. Their priests were busy launching the boats. 
The departing soldiers seemed simultaneously to have 
become conscious of a very black suggestion. Cooped 
up against the outer wall in the dead sleep of torpid 
gluttony lay the leading warriors of the Iroquois 
nation. Were these not the assassins of countless 
Frenchmen, the murderers of women, the torturers of 
children ? Had Providence not placed the treacher- 
ous Iroquois in the hands of fifty Frenchmen ? If 
these warriors were slain, it would be an easy matter 
to march to the villages of the Confederacy, kill the 
old men, and take prisoners the women. New France 
would be forever free of her most deadly enemy. 
Like the Indians, the white men were trying to justify 
a wrong under pretence of good- By chance, word 
ot the conspiracy was carried to the Jesuits. With 
all the authority of the church, the priests forbade 
the crime. " Their answer was," relates Radisson, 
" that they were sent to instruct in the faith of 
Jesus Christ and not to destroy, and that the cross 
must be their sword." 



66 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Locking the sally-port, the company — as the 
Jesuit father records — "shook the dust of Onon- 
daga from their feet," launched out on the swift-flow- 
ing, dark river and escaped " as the children of Israel 
escaped by night from the land of Egypt." They 
had not gone far through the darkness before the 
roar of waters told them of a cataract ahead. They 
were four hours carrying baggage and boats over this 
portage. Sleet beat upon their backs. The rocks 
were slippery with glazed ice ; and through the rot- 
ten, half-thawed snow, the men sank to mid-waist. 
Navigation became worse on Lake Ontario ; for the 
wind tossed the lake like a sea, and ice had whirled 
against the St. Lawrence in a jam. On the St. Law- 
rence, they had to wait for the current to carry the 
ice out. At places they cut a passage through the 
honeycombed ice with their hatchets, and again they 
were compelled to portage over the ice. The water 
was so high that the rapids were safely ridden by all 
the boats but one, which was shipwrecked, and three 
of the men were drowned. 

They had left Onondaga on the 20th of March, 
1658. On the evening of April 3d they came to 
Montreal, where they learned that New France had 
all winter suffered intolerable insolence from the Iro- 
quois, lest punishment of the hostiles should endanger 
the French at Onondaga. The fleeing colonists waited 



RADISSON'S SECOND VOYAGE 67 

twelve days at Montreal for the ice to clear, and were 
again held back by a jam at Three Rivers ; but on 
April 23 they moored safely under the heights of 
Quebec. 

Coureiirs from Onondaga brought word that the 
Mohawks had been deceived by the pig and the 
ringing bell and the effigies for more than a week. 
Crowing came from the chicken yard, dogs bayed in 
their kennels, and when a Mohawk pulled the bell 
at the gate, he could hear the sentry's measured 
march. At the end of seven days not a white man 
had come from the fort. At first the Mohawks had 
thought the " black robes " were at prayers ; but now 
suspicions of trickery flashed on the Iroquois. War- 
riors climbed the palisades and found the fort empty. 
Two hundred Mohawks set out in pursuit; but the 
bad weather held them back. And that w^as the way 
Radisson saved Onondaga.^ 

' The fcitim a tout manger must not be too sweepingly condemned by the self- 
righteous white man as long as drinking bouts are a part of civilized customs ; and 
at least one civilized nation has the gross proverb, " Better burst than waste." 



CHAPTER III 

1658-1660 

RADISSON'S THIRD VOYAGE 

The Discovery of the Great Northwest — Radisson and his Brother-in- 
law, Groseillers, visit what are now Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota, 
and the Canadian Northwest — Radisson' s Prophecy on first behold- 
ing the West — Twelve Years before Marquette and JoUiet, Radisson 
sees the Mississippi — The Terrible Remains of Dollard's Fight 
seen on the Way down the Ottawa — Why Radisson' s Explorations 
have been ignored 

While Radisson was among the Iroquois, the httle 
world of New France had not been asleep. Before 
Radisson was born, Jean Nicolet of Three Rivers had 
passed westward through the straits of Mackinaw and 
coasted down Lake Michigan as far as Green Bay.^ 
Some years later the great Jesuit martyr, Jogues, had 
preached to the Indians of Sault Ste. Marie; but 
beyond the Sault was an unknown world that beckoned 
the young adventurers of New France as with the 
hands of a siren. Of the great beyond — known 
to-day as the Great Northwest — nothing had been 
learned but this: from it came the priceless stores of 

^ Mr. Benjamin Suite establishes this date as 1634, 
68 



RADISSON'S THIRD VOYAGE 69 

beaver pelts yearly brought down the Ottawa to Three 
Rivers by the Algonquins, and in it dwelt strange, wild 
races whose territory extended northwest and north to 
unknown nameless seas. 

The Great Beyond held the two things most 
coveted by ambitious young men of New France, — 
quick wealth by means of the fur trade and the 
immortal fame of being a first explorer. Nicolet had 
gone only as far as Green Bay and Fox River ; Jogues 
not far beyond the Sault. What secrets lay in the 
Great Unknown ? Year after year young Frenchmen, 
fired with the zeal of the explorer, joined wandering 
tribes of Algonquins going up the Ottawa, in the hope 
of being taken beyond the Sault. In August, 1656, 
there came from Green Bay two young Frenchmen 
with fifty canoes of Algonquins, who told of far-distant 
waters called Lake " Ouinipeg," and tribes of wander- 
ing hunters called "Christinos" (Crees), who spent 
their winters in a land bare of trees (the prairie), 
and their summers on the North Sea (Hud- 
son's Bay). They also told of other tribes, who 
were great warriors, living to the south, — these were 
the Sioux. But the two Frenchmen had not gone 
beyond the Great Lakes.' These Algonquins were 

1 See yesuit Relations, 1656-57-58. I have purposely refrained from entering 
into the heated controversy as to the identity o( these two men. It is apart from the 
subject, as there is no proof these men went beyond the Green Bay region. 



70 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

received at Chateau St. Louis, Quebec, with pom- 
pous firing of cannon and other demonstrations of 

welcome. So eager were 
the French to take posses- 
sion of the new land that 
thirty young men equipped 
themselves to go back 
with the Indians; and the 
Jesuits sent out two priests, 
Leonard Gareau and Ga- 
briel Dreuillettes, with a 
lay helper, Louis Boesme. 
The sixty canoes left Que- 
bec with more firing of 
guns for a God-speed ; but 
at Lake St. Peter the 
Mohawks ambushed the 
flotilla. The enterprise of 
exploring the Great Be- 
yond was abandoned by 
all the French but two. 
Gareau, who was mortally 
wounded on the Ottawa, 
probably by a Frenchman or renegade hunter, died at 
Montreal ; and Dreuillettes did not go farther than 
Lake Nipissing. Here, Dreuillettes learned much of 
the Unknown from an old Nipissing chief. He heard 




A Cree brave, with the wampum 
string. 



I 



RADISSON'S THIRD VOYAGE 71 

of six overland routes to the bay of the North, whence 
came such store of peltry.' He, too, like the two 
Frenchmen from Green Bay, heard of wandering tribes 
who had no settled lodge like the Hurons and Iroquois, 
but lived by the chase, — Crees and Sioux and Assini- 
boines of the prairie, at constant war round a lake 
called " Ouinipegouek," 

By one of those curious coincidences of destiny 
which mark the lives of nations and men, the young 
Frenchman who had gone with the Jesuit, Dreuillettes, 
to Lake Nipissing when the other Frenchmen turned 
back, was Medard Chouart Groseillers, the fur trader 
married to Radisson's widowed sister. Marguerite." 

When Radisson came back from Onondaga, he 
found his brother-in-law^, Groseillers, at Three Rivers, 
with ambitious designs of exploration in the unknown 
land of which he had heard at Green Bay and on 
Lake Nipissing. Jacques Cartier had discovered only 
one great river, had laid the foundations of onlv one 
small province; Champlain had only made the cir- 
cuit ot the St. Lawrence, the Ottawa, and the Great 

1 These routes were : ( I ) By the Saguenay, ( 2 ) by Three Rivers and the St. 
Maurice, (3) by Lake Nipissing, (4) by Lake Huron, through the land of the 
Sautaux, (5) by Lake Superior overland, (6) by the Ottawa. See jfesuit Relationt 
for detailed accounts of these routes. Dreuillettes went farther west to the Crees a few 
years later, but that does not concern this narrative. 

2 The dispute as to whether eastern Minnesota was discovered on the 1654-55-56 
trip, and whether Groseillers discovered it, is a point for savants, but will, I think, 
remain an unsettled dispute. 



72 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Lakes ; but here was a country — if the Indians spoke 
the truth — greater than all the empires of Europe 
together, a country bounded only by three great seas, 
the Sea of the North, the Sea of the South, and the 
Sea of Japan, a country so vast as to stagger the ut- 
most conception of little New France. 

It was unnecessary for Groseillers to say more. The 
ambition of young Radisson took fire. Long ago, 
when a captive among the Mohawks, he had cherished 
boyish dreams that it was to be his " destiny to 
discover many wild nations " ; and here was that 
destiny opening the door for him, pointing the way, 
beckoning to the toils and dangers and glories of the 
discoverer's life. Radisson had been tortured among 
the Mohawks and besieged among the Onondagas. 
Groseillers had been among the Huron missions that 
were destroyed and among the Algonquin canoes that 
were attacked. Both explorers knew what perils 
awaited them ; but what youthful blood ever chilled at 
prospect of danger when a single coup might win both 
wealth and fame ? Radisson had not been home one 
month ; but he had no sooner heard the plan than he 
" longed to see himself in a boat." 

A hundred and fifty Algonquins had come down 
the Ottawa from the Great Beyond shortly after 
Radisson returned from Onondaga. Six of these 
Algonquins had brought their furs to Three Rivers. 



RADISSON'S THIRD VOYAGE 73 

Some emissaries had gone to Quebec to meet the 
governor; but the majority of the Indians remained at 
Montreal to avoid the ambuscade of the Mohawks on 
Lake St. Peter. Radisson and Groseillers were not 
the only Frenchmen conspiring to wrest fame and 
fortune from the Upper Country. When the Indians 
came back from Quebec, they were accompanied by 
thirty young French adventurers, gay as boys out of 
school or gold hunters before the first check to their 
plans. There were also two Jesuits sent out to win 
the new domain for the cross.^ As ignorant as chil- 
dren of the hardships ahead, the other treasure-seekers 
kept up nonchalant boasting that roused the irony of 
such seasoned men as Radisson and Groseillers. 
" What fairer bastion than a good tongue," Radisson 
demands cynically, " especially when one sees his own 
chimney smoke? ... It is different when food is 
wanting, work necessary day and night, sleep taken 
on the bare ground or to mid-waist in water, with 
an empty stomach, weariness in the bones, and bad 
weather overhead." 

Giving the slip to their noisy companions, Radisson 
and Groseillers stole out from Three Rivers late one 
night in June, accompanied by Algonquin guides. 

^ The Relations do not give the names of these two Jesuits, probably owing to the 
fact that the enterprise failed. They simply state that two priests set out, but were 
compelled to remain behind owing to the caprice of the savages. 



74 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Travelling only at night to avoid Iroquois spies, they 
came to Montreal in three days. Here were gathered 
one hundred and forty Indians from the Upper 
Country, the thirty French, and the two priests. No 
gun was fired at Montreal, lest the Mohawks should 
get wind of the departure ; and the flotilla of sixty 
canoes spread over Lake St. Louis for the far venture 
of the Pays d' en Haut. Three days of work had 
silenced the boasting of the gay adventurers ; and the 
voyageurs, white and red, were now paddling in swift 
silence. Safety engendered carelessness. As the fleet 
seemed to be safe from Iroquois ambush, the canoes 
began to scatter. Some loitered behind. Hunters 
went ashore to shoot. The hills began to ring with 
shot and call. At the first portage many of the 
canoes were nine and ten miles apart. Enemies could 
have set on the Algonquins in some narrow defile and 
slaughtered the entire company like sheep in a pen. 
Radisson and Groseillers warned the Indians of the 
risk they were running. Many of these Algonquins 
had never before possessed firearms. With the 
muskets obtained in trade at Three Rivers, they 
thought themselves invincible and laughed all warning 
to scorn. Radisson and Groseillers were told that 
they were a pair of timid squaws ; and the canoes 
spread apart till not twenty were within call. As they 
skirted the wooded shores, a man suddenly dashed 



RADISSON'S THIRD VOYAGE 75 

from the forest with an upraised war-hatchet in one 
hand and a blanket streaming from his shoulders. 
He shouted for them to come to him. The Algon- 
quins were panic-stricken. Was the man pursued by 
Mohawks, or laying a trap to lure them within shoot- 
ing range ? Seeing them hesitate, the Indian threw 
down blanket and hatchet to signify that he was 
defenceless, and rushed into the water to his armpits. 

" I would save you," he shouted in Iroquois. 

The Algonquins did not understand. They only 
knew that he spoke the tongue of the hated enemy and 
was unarmed. In a trice, the Algonquins in the nearest 
canoe had thrown out a well-aimed lasso, roped the man 
round the waist, and drawn him a captive into the canoe. 

" Brothers," protested the captive, who seems to 
have been either a Huron slave or an Iroquois 
magician, " your enemies are spread up and down ! 
Sleep not ! They have heard your noise ! They 
wait for you ! Fhey are sure of their prey ! Believe 
me — keep together! Spend not your powder in vain 
to frighten your enemies by noise ! See that the stones 
of your arrows be not bent ! Bend your bows ! Keep 
vour hatchets sharp ! Build a fort ! Make haste ! " 

But the Algonquins, intoxicated with the new 
power of firearms, would hear no warning. They did 
not understand his words and refused to heed Radis- 
son's interpretation. Beating paddles on their canoes 



76 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

and firing off guns, they shouted derisively that the 
man was " a dog and a hen," All the same, they did 
not land to encamp that night, but slept in midstream, 
with their boats tied to the rushes or on the lee side of 
floating trees. The French lost heart. If this were 
the beginning, what of the end ? Daylight had scarcely 
broken when the paddles of the eager voyageurs were 
cutting the thick gray mist that rose from the river to 
get away from observation while the fog still hid the 
fleet. From afar came the dull, heavy rumble of a 
waterfall.^ 

There was a rush of the twelve foremost canoes to 
reach the landing and cross the -portage before the 
thinning mist lifted entirely. Twelve boats had got 
ashore when the fog was cleft by a tremendous crash- 
ing of guns, and Iroquois ambushed in the bordering 
forest let go a salute of musketry. Everything was 
instantly in confusion. Abandoning their baggage 
to the enemy, the Algonquins and French rushed 

1 Whether they were now on the Ottawa or the St. Lawrence, it is impossible 
to tell. Dr. Dionne thinks that the band went overland from Lake Ontario to Lake 
Huron. I know both waters — Lake Ontario and the Ottawa — from many trips, 
and I think Radisson's description here tallies with his other descriptions of the Ottawa. 
It is certain that they must have been on the Ottawa before they came to the Lake of 
the Castors or Nipissing. The noise of the waterfall seems to point to the Chaudiere 
Falls of the Ottawa. If so, the landing place would be the tongue of land running out 
from Hull, opposite the city of Ottawa, and the portage would be the Aylmer Road 
beyond the rapids above the falls. Mr. Benjamin Suite, the scholarly historian, thinks 
they went by way of the Ottawa, not Lake Ontario, as the St. Lawrence route was not 
used till 1702. 



RADISSON'S THIRD VOYAGE 77 

for the woods to erect a barricade. This would 
protect the landing of the other canoes. The Iro- 
quois immediately threw up a defence of fallen logs 
likewise, and each canoe that came ashore was greeted 
with a cross fire between the two barricades. Four 
canoes were destroyed and thirteen of the Indians 
from the Upper Country killed. As day wore on, 
the Iroquois' shots ceased, and the Algonquins cele- 
brated the truce by killing and devouring all the 
prisoners they had taken, among whom was the magi- 
cian who had given them warning. Radisson and 
Groseillers wondered if the Iroquois were reserving 
their powder for a night raid. The Algonquins did 
not wait to know. As soon as darkness fell, there 
was a wild scramble for the shore. A long, low 
trumpet call, such as hunters use, signalled the 
Algonquins to rally and rush for the boats. The 
French embarked as best they could. The Indians 
swam and paddled for the opposite shore of the 
river. Here, in the dark, hurried council was taken. 
The most of the baggage had been lost. The 
Indians refused to help either the Jesuits or the 
French, and it was impossible for the white voyageurs 
''to keep up the pace in the dash across an unknown 
portage through the dark. The French adventurers 
turned back for Montreal. Of the white men, Radis- 
son and Groseillers alone went on. 



78 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Frightened into their senses by the encounter, the 
Algonquins now travelled only at night till they were 
far beyond range of the Iroquois. All day the fugi- 
tive band lay hidden in the woods. They could not 
hunt, lest Mohawk spies might hear the gunshots. 
Provisions dwindled. In a short time the food con- 
sisted o^ tripe de roche — a greenish moss boiled into 
a soup — and the few fish that might be caught during 
hurried nightly launch or morning landing. Some- 
times they hid in a berry patch, when the fruit was 
gathered and boiled, but camp-fires were stamped out 
and covered. Turning westward, they crossed the 
barren region of iron-capped rocks and dwarf growth 
between the Upper Ottawa and the Great Lakes. 
Now they were farther from the Iroquois, and staved 
off famine by shooting an occasional bear in the berry 
patches. For a thousand miles they had travelled 
against stream, carrying their boats across sixty por- 
tages. Now they glided with the current westward 
to Lake Nipissing. On the lake, the Upper Indians 
always cached provisions. Fish, otter, and beaver were 
plentiful ; but again they refrained from using firearms, 
for Iroquois footprints had been found on the sand. 

From Lake Nipissing they passed to Lake Huron, 
where the fieet divided. Radisson and Groseillers 
went with the Indians, who crossed Lake Huron for 
Green Bav on Lake Michigan. The birch canoes 



RADISSON'S THIRD VOYAGE 79 

could not venture across the lake in storms ; so the 
boats rounded southward, keeping along the shore of 
Georgian Bay. Cedar forests clustered down the 
sandy reaches of the lake. Rivers dark as cathedral 
aisles rolled their brown tides through the woods 
to the blue waters of Lake Huron. At one point 
Groseillers recognized the site of the ruined Jesuit 
missions. The Indians waited the chance of a fair 
day, and paddled over to the straits at the entrance 
to Lake Michigan. At Manitoulin Island were Huron 
refugees, among whom were, doubtless, the waiting 
flimilies of the Indians with Radisson. All struck 
south for Green Bay. So far Radisson and Groseillers 
had travelled over beaten ground. Now they were at 
the gatewav of the Great Beyond, where no white 
man had yet gone. 

The first thing done on taking up winter quarters 
on Green Bay was to appease the friends o{ those 
warriors slain by the Mohawks. A distribution of 
gifts had barely dried up the tears of mourning when 
news came of Iroquois on the war-path. Radisson 
did not wait for fear to unman the Algonquin warriors. 
Before making winter camp, he offered to lead a band 
of volunteers against the marauders. For two days 
he followed vague tracks through the autumn-tinted 
forests. Here were markings of the dead leaves turned 
freshly up ; there a moccasin print on the sand : and 



8o PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

now the ashes of a hidden camp-fire lying in almost 
imperceptible powder on fallen logs told where the 
Mohawks had bivouacked. On the third day Radis- 
son caught the ambushed band unprepared, and fell 
upon the Iroquois so furiously that not one escaped. 

After that the Indians of the Upper Country could 
not do too much for the white men. Radisson and 
Groseillers were conducted from camp to camp in tri- 
umph. Feasts were held. Ambassadors went ahead 
with gifts from the Frenchmen ; and companies of 
women marched to meet the explorers, chanting songs 
of welcome. " But our mind was not to stay here," 
relates Radisson, " but to know the remotest people ; 
and, because we had been willing to die in their de- 
fence, these Indians consented to conduct us." 

Before the opening of spring, 1659, Radisson and 
Groseillers had been guided across what is now Wis- 
consin to "a mighty river, great, rushing, profound, and 
comparable to the St. Lawrence." ^ On the shores 
of the river they found a vast nation — " the people 
of the fire," prairie tribes, a branch of the Sioux, 
who received them well.^ This river was undoubtedly 
the Upper Mississippi, now for the first time seen by 
white men. Radisson and Groseillers had discovered 

1 yesuit Relations, 1660. 

^Jesuit Relatione, 1660, and Radisson^ s Journal. These "people of the fire," 
or Mascoudns, were in three regions, (i) Wisconsin, (2) Nebraska, (3) on the Missouri. 
See Appendix £. 



An Old-time Buffalo Hunt on the Plains among the Sioux, 



RADISSON'S THIRD VOYAGE 8i 

the Great Northwest.^ They were standing on the 
threshold of the Great Beyond. They saw before 
them not the Sea of China, as speculators had 
dreamed, not kingdoms for conquest, which the 
princes of Europe coveted ; not a short road to 
Asia, of which savants had spun a cobweb of theo- 
ries. They saw what every Westerner sees to-day, — 
illimitable reaches of prairie and ravine, forested hills 
sloping to mighty rivers, and open meadow-lands 
watered by streams looped like a ribbon. They 
saw a land waiting for its people, wealth waiting for 
possessors, an empire waiting for the nation builders. 

What were Radisson's thoughts ? Did he realize 
the importance of his discovery ? Could he have the 
vaguest premonition that he had opened a door of 
escape from stifled older lands to a higher type of 
manhood and freedom than the most sanguine dreamer 
had ever hoped ? '"' After an act has come to fruition, 
it is easy to read into the actor's mind tuller purpose 
than he could have intended. Columbus could not 
have realized to what the discovery of America would 

1 Benjamin Suite unequivocally states that the river was the Mississippi. Of writers 
contemporaneous with Radisson, the Jesuits, Marie de I'lncarnation, and Charlevoix cor- 
roborate Radisson's account. In the face of this, what are we to think of modern writers 
with a reputation to lose, who brush Radisson's exploits aside as a possible fabrication ? 
The only conclusion is that they have not read his 'Journal. 

* I refer to Radisson alone, because for half the time in 1659 Groseillers was ill at 
the lake, and we cannot be sure that he accompanied Radisson in all the journeys south 
and west, though Radisson generously alwavs includes him as " we." Besides, Groseillers 
seems to have attended to the trading, Radisson to the exploring. 
G 



82 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

lead. Did Radisson realize what the discovery of the 
Great Northwest meant ? 

Here is what he says, in that curious medley of 
idioms which so often results when a speaker knows 
many languages but is master of none : — 

" The country was so pleasant, so beautiful, and 
so fruitful, that it grieved me to see that the world 
could not discover such inticing countries to live in. 
This, I say, because the Europeans fight for a rock in 
the sea against one another, or for a steril land . . . 
where the people by changement of air engender sick- 
ness and die. . . . Contrariwise, these kingdoms are 
so delicious and under so temperate a climate, plen- 
tiful of all things, and the earth brings forth its fruit 
twice a year, that the people live long and lusty and 
wise in their way. What a conquest would this be, at 
little or no cost ? What pleasure should people have 
. . . instead of misery and poverty ! Why should 
not men reap of the love of God here ? Surely, more 
is to be gained converting souls here than in differ- 
ences of creed, when wrongs are committed under 
pretence of religion! ... It is true, I confess, . . . 
that access here is difficult . . . but nothing is to be 
gained without labor and pains." ^ 

1 If any one cares to render Radisson' s peculiar jumble of French, English, Italian, 
and Indian idioms into more intelligent form, they may try their hand at it. His 
meaning is quite clear ; but the words are a medley. The passage is to be found on 
pp. 1 50-1 5 1, of the Prince Society Reprint. See also Jesuit Relations, 1660. 



RAUISSON'S THIRD VOYAGE 83 

Here Radisson foreshadows all the best gains that 
the West has accomplished for the human race. 
What are they ? Mainly room, — room to live and 
room for opportunity ; equal chances for all classes, 




Father Marquette, from an old painting discovered in Montreal by 
Mr. McNab. The date on the picture is 1669. 

high and low; plenty for all classes, high and low; the 
conquests not of war but of peace. The question arises, 
— when Radisson discovered the Great Northwest ten 



84 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

years before Marquette and Jolliet, twenty years be- 
fore La Salle, a hundred years before De la Veren- 
drye, why has his name been slurred over and left in 
oblivion ? ^ The reasons are plain. Radisson was a 
Christian, but he was not a slave to any creed. Such 
liberality did not commend itself to the annalists of an 
age that was still rioting in a very carnival of religious 
persecution. Radisson always invoked the blessing of 
Heaven on his enterprises and rendered thanks for his 
victories ; but he was indifferent as to whether he was 
acting as lay helper with the Jesuits, or allied to the 
Huguenots of London and Boston. His discoveries 
were too important to be ignored by the missionaries. 
They related his discoveries, but refrained from men- 
tioning his name, though twice referring to Groseillers. 
What hurt Radisson's fame even more than his in- 
difference to creeds was his indifference to nationality. 
Like Columbus, he had little care what flag floated 
at the prow, provided only that the prow pushed on 
and on and on, — into the Unknown. He sold his 

1 It will be noted that what I claim for Radisson is the honor of discovering the 
Great Northivest, and refrain from trying to identify his movements with the modern 
place names of certain states. I have done this intentionally — though it would have 
been easy to advance opinions about Green Bay, Fox River, and the Wisconsin, and 
so become involved in the childish quarrel that has split the western historical societies 
and obscured the main issue of Radisson's feat. Needless to say, the world does not 
care whether Radisson went by way of the Menominee, or snow-shoed across country. 
The question is : Did he reach the Mississippi Valley before Marquette and Jolliet and 
La Salle f That question this chapter answers. 



RADISSON'S THIRD VOYAGE 85 

services alternately to France and England till he had 
offended both governments ; and, in addition to with- 
standing a conspiracy of silence on the part of the 
Church, his fame encountered the ill-will of state 
historians. He is mentioned as " the adventurer," 
"the hang-dog," "the renegade." Only m 1885, 
when the manuscript of his travels was rescued from 
oblivion, did it become evident that history must be 
rewritten. Here was a man whose discoveries were 
second only to those of Columbus, and whose explora- 
tions were more far-ranging and important than those 
of Champlain and La Salle and De la Verendrye put 
together. 

The spring of 1659 found the explorers still among 
the prairie tribes of the Mississippi. From these peo- 
ple Radisson learned of four other races occupying 
vast, undiscovered countries. He heard of the Sioux, 
a warlike nation to the west, who had no fixed abode 
but lived by the chase and were at constant war with 
another nomadic tribe to the north — the Crees. The 
Crees spent the summer time round the shores of salt 
water, and in winter came inland to hunt. Between 
these two was a third, — the Assiniboines, — who used 
earthen pots for cooking, heated their food by throwing 
hot stones in water, and dressed themselves in buckskin. 
These three tribes were wandering hunters ; but the 



86 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

people of the fire told Radisson of yet another nation, 
who lived in villages like the Iroquois, on " a great 
river that divided itself in two," and was called " the 
Forked River," because " it had two branches, the 
one toward the west, the other toward the south, 
. . . toward Mexico." These people were the Man- 
dans or Omahas, or lowas, or other people of the 
Missouri.^ 

A whole world of discoveries lay before them. In 
what direction should they go ? " We desired not to 
go to the north till we had made a discovery in the 
south," explains Radisson. The people of the fire 
refused to accompany the explorers farther ; so the 
two " put themselves in hazard," as Radisson relates, 
and set out alone. They must have struck across 
the height of land between the Mississippi and the 
Missouri ; for Radisson records that they met several 
nations having villages, " all amazed to see us and very 

1 I have refrained from quoting Radisson's names for the different Indian tribes be- 
cause it would only be " caviare to the general." If Radisson's manuscript be consulted 
it will be seen that the crucial point is the whereabouts of the Mascoutins — or people of 
the fire. Reference to the last part of Appendix E will show that these people extended 
far beyond the Wisconsin to the Missouri. It is ignorance of this fact that has created 
such bitter and childish controversy about the exact direction taken by Radisson west- 
north-west of the Mascoutins. The exact words of the document in the Marine 
Department are : "In the lower Missipy there are several other nations very numerous 
with whom we have no commerce who are trading yet with nobody. Above Missoury 
river which is in the Mississippi below the river Illinois, to the south, there are the 
Mascoutins, Nadoessioux (Sioux) with whom we trade and who are numerous." Ben- 
jamin Suite was one of the first to discover that the Mascoutins had been in Nebraska, 
though he does not attempt to trace this part of Radisson's journey definitely. 



RADISSON'S THIRD VOYAGE 87 

civil. The farther we sojourned, the delightfuller the 
land became. I can say that in all my lifetime I have 
never seen a finer country, for all that I have been in 
Italy. The people have very long hair. They reap 
twice a year. They war against the Sioux and the Cree. 
... It was very hot there. . . . Being among the 
people they told us ... of men that built great cabins 
and have beards and have knives like the French." 
The Indians showed Radisson a string of beads only 
used by Europeans. These people must have been 
the Spaniards of the south. The tribes on the Missouri 
were large men of well-formed figures. There were 
no deformities among the people. Radisson saw corn 
and pumpkins in their gardens. "Their arrows were 
not of stone, but of fish bones. . . . Their dishes 
were made of wood. . . . They had great calumets 
of red and green stone . . . and great store of tobacco. 
. . . They had a kind of drink that made them mad 
for a whole day." ^ " We had not yet seen the Sioux," 

' The entire account of the people on "the Forked River" is so exact an account 
of the Mandans that it might be a page from Catlin's descriptions two centuries later. 
The long hair, the two crops a year, the tobacco, the soap-stone calumets, the stationary 
villages, the knowledge of the Spaniards, the warm climate — all point to a region far 
south of the Northern States, to which so many historians have stupidly and with almost 
wilful ignorance insisted on limiting Radisson's travels. Parkman has been thoroughly 
honest in the matter. His La Salle had been written before the discovery of the Radis- 
son JournaU ; but in subsequent editions he acknowledges in a footnote that Radisson 
had been to "the Forked River." Other writers (with the exception of five) have 
been content to quote from Radisson's enemies instead of going directly to his journals. 
Even Garneau slurs over Radisson's explorations ; but Garneau, too, wrote before the 



88 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

relates Radisson. " We went toward the south and 
came back by the north." The Jesuit Relations are 
more expHcit. Written the year that Radisson re- 
turned to Quebec, they state : " Continuing their wan- 
derings, our two young Frenchmen visited the Sioux, 
where they found five thousand warriors. They then 
left this nation for another warlike people, who with 
bows and arrows had rendered themselves redoubtable." 
These were the Crees, with whom, say the Jesuits, wood 
is so rare and small that nature has taught them to 
make fire of a kind of coal and to cover their cabins 
with skins of the chase. The explorers seem to have 
spent the summer hunting antelope, buffalo, moose, 
and wild turkey. The Sioux received them cordially, 
supplied them with food, and gave them an escort to 
the next encampments. They had set out southwest 
to the Mascoutins, Mandans, and perhaps, also, the 
Omahas. They were now circling back northeastward 
toward the Sault between Lake Michigan and Lake 
Superior. How far westward had they gone ? Only 
two facts gave any clew. Radisson reports that moun- 

discovery of the Radisson papers. Abbe Tanguay, who is almost infallible on French- 
Canadian matters, slips up on Radisson, because his writings preceded the publication 
of the Radisson Relations. The five writers who have attempted to redeem Radisson's 
memory from ignominvare: Dr. N. E. Dionne, of the Parliamentary Library, Quebec j 
Mr. Justice Prudhomme, of St. Boniface, Manitoba; Dr. George Bryce, of Winnepeg ; 
Mr. Benjamin Suite, of Ottawa ; and Judge J. V. Brower, of St. Paul. L ever a mon- 
ument be erected to Radisson — as one certainly ought in every province and state west 
of the Great Lakes — the names of these four cliampions should be engraved upon it. 



RADISSON'S THIRD VOYAGE 89 

tains lav far inland ; and the Jesuits record that the 
explorers were among tribes that used coal. This 
must have been a country far west of the Mandans 
and Mascoutins and within sight of at least the Bad 
Lands, or that stretch of rough country between the 
prairie and outlying foothills of the Rockies.^ The 
course of the first exploration seems to have circled 
over the territory now known as Wisconsin, perhaps 
eastern Iowa and Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, 
and back over North Dakota and Minnesota to the 
north shore of Lake Superior. " The lake toward 
the north is full of rocks, yet great ships can ride in it 
without danger," writes Radisson. At the Sault they 
found the Crees and Sautaux in bitter war. They 
also heard of a French establishment, and going to 
visit it found that the Jesuits had established a 
mission. 

Radisson had explored the Southwest. He now 
decided to essay the Northwest. When the Sautaux 

1 This claim will, I know, stagger preconceived ideas. In the light of only Radis- 
son's narrative, the third voyage has usually been identified with Wisconsin and Minne- 
sota ; but in the light of the 'Jesuit Relations, written the year that Radisson returned, 
to what tribes could the descriptions apply? Even Parkman's footnote acknowledged 
that Radisson was among the people of the Missouri. Grant that, and the question 
arises, What people on the Missouri answer the description ? The Indians of the for 
west use not only coal for fire, but raw galena to make bullets for their guns. In feet, 
it was that practice of the tribes of Idaho that led prospectors to find the Blue Bell 
Mine of Kootenay. Granting that the Jesuit account — which was of course, from 
hearsay — mistook the use of turf, dry grass, or burf'alo refuse for a kind of coal, 
the fact remains that only the very far western tribes had this custom. 



90 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

were at war with the Crees, he met the Crees and 
heard of the great salt sea in the north. Surely this 
was the Sea of the North — Hudson Bay — of which 
the Nipissing chief had told Groseillers long ago. 
Then the Crees had great store of beaver pelts ; and 
trade must not be forgotten. No sooner had peace 
been arranged between Sautaux and Crees, than Cree 
hunters flocked out of the northern forests to winter 
on Lake Superior. A rumor of Iroquois on the war- 
path compelled Radisson and Groseillers to move 
their camp back from Lake Superior higher up the 
chain of lakes and rivers between what is now Minne- 
sota and Canada, toward the country of the Sioux. 
In the fall of 1659 Groseillers' health began to fail 
from the hardships; so he remained in camp for the 
winter, attending to the trade, while Radisson carried 
on the explorations alone. 

This was one of the coldest winters known in 
Canada.^ The snow fell so heavily in the thick pine 
woods of Minnesota that Radisson says the forest 
became as sombre as a cellar. The colder the weather 
the better the fur, and, presenting gifts to insure safe 
conduct, Radisson set out with a band of one hundred 
and fifty Cree hunters for the Northwest. They trav- 
elled on snow-shoes, hunting moose on the way and sleep- 
ing at night round a camp-fire under the stars. League 

1 Letters of Mark de V Incarnation. 



RADISSON'S THIRD VOYAGE 91 

after league, with no sound through the deathly white 
forest but the soft crunch-crunch of the snow- 
shoes, they travelled two hundred miles toward 
what is now Manitoba. When they had set out, 
the snow was like a cushion. Now it began to melt 
in the spring sun, and clogged the snow-shoes till it 
was almost impossible to travel. In the morning the 
surface was glazed ice, and they could march without 
snow-shoes. Spring thaw called a halt to their 
exploration. The Crees encamped for three weeks to 
build boats. As soon as the ice cleared, the band 
launched back down-stream for the appointed rendez- 
vous on Green Bay. All that Radisson learned on 
this trip was that the Bay of the North lay much 
farther from Lake Superior than the old Nipissing 
chief had told Dreuillettes and Groseillers.^ 

Groseillers had all in readiness to depart for Quebec ; 
and five hundred Indians from the Upper Country 
had come together to go down the Ottawa and St. 
Lawrence with the explorers. As thev were about 
to embark, coureiirs came in from the woods with 
news that more than a thousand Iroquois were on the 
war-path, boasting that they would exterminate the 
I^rench.'- Somewhere along the Ottawa a small band 
of Hurons had been massacred. The Indians with 

1 Jesuit Relations, 1 658. 

^ See Marie de 1' Incarnation, Dollicr dc Casson, and Abbe Belmont. 



92 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Groseillers and Radisson were terrified. A council of 
the elders was called. 

" Brothers, why are ye so foolish as to put your- 
selves in the hands of those that wait for you ? " 
demanded an old chief, addressing the two white men. 
" The Iroquois will destroy you and carry you away 
captive. Will you have your brethren, that love you, 
slain? Who will baptize our children?" (Radisson 
and Groseillers had baptized more than two hundred 
children.^) " Stay till next year ! Then you may 
freely go ! Our mothers will send their children to be 
taught in the way of the Lord ! " 

Fear is like fire. It must be taken in the beginning, 
or it spreads. The explorers retired, decided on a 
course of action, and requested the Indians to meet 
them in council a second time. Eight hundred warriors 
assembled, seating themselves in a circle. Radisson 
and Groseillers took their station in the centre."^ 

1 jfesuit Relations, 1660. 

2 It may be well to state as nearly as possible exactly ivhat tribes Radisson had met 
in this trip. Those rejoined on the way up at Manitoulin Island were refugee Hurons 
and Ottawas. From the Hurons, Ottawas, and Algonquins of Green Bay, Radisson 
went west with Pottowatomies ; from them to the Escotecke or Sioux of the Fire, 
namely a branch of the Mascoutins. From these Wisconsin Mascoutins, he learns of 
the Nadoneceroron, or Sioux proper, and of the Christinos or Crees. Going west with 
the Mascoutins, he comes to "sedentary" tribes. Are these the Mandans .^ He 
compares this country to Italy. From them he hears of white men, that he thinks 
may be Spaniards. This tribe is at bitter war with Sioux and Crees. At Green Bay 
he hears of the Sautaux in war with Crees. His description of buffalo hunts among the 
Sioux tallies exactly with the Pembina hunts of a later day. Oldmixon says that it 
was from Crees and Assiniboines visiting at Green Bay that Radisson learned of a way 
overland to the great game country of Hudson Bay. 



RADISSON'S THIRD VOYAGE 93 

" Who am I ? " demanded Groseillers, hotly. " Am 
I a foe or a friend ? If a foe, why did you suffer me 
to live ? If a friend, listen what I say ! You know 
that we risked our lives for you ! If we have no cour- 
age, why did you not tell us? If you have more wit 
than we, why did you not use it to defend yourselves 
against the Iroquois? How can you defend your 
wives and children unless you get arms from the 
French ! " 

" Fools," cried Radisson, striking a beaver skin 
across an Indian's shoulder, " will you fight the Iro- 
quois with beaver pelts ? Do you not know the 
French way ? We fight with guns, not robes. The 
Iroquois will coop vou up here till you have used all 
your powder, and then despatch you with ease ! Shall 
your children be slaves because you are cowards ? Do 
what you will ! For my part I choose to die like a 
man rather than live like a beggar. Take back your 
beaver robes. We can live without you — " and the 
white men strode out from the council. 

Consternation reigned among the Indians. There 
was an uproar of argument. For six days the fate of the 
white men hung fire. Finally the chiefs sent word that 
the five hundred young warriors would go to Quebec 
with the white men. Radisson did not give their ardor 
time to cool. They embarked at once. The fleet of 
canoes crossed the head of the lakes and came to the 



94 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Upper Ottawa without adventure. Scouts went ahead 
to all the portages^ and great care was taken to avoid 
an ambush when passing overland. Below the Chau- 
diere Falls the scouts reported that four Iroquois 
boats had crossed the river. Again Radisson did not 
give time for fear. He sent the lightest boats in pur- 
suit ; and while keeping the enemy thus engaged with 
half his own company on guard at the ends of the long 
■portage^ he hurriedly got cargoes and canoes across the 
landing. The Iroquois had fled. By that Radisson 
knew they were weak. Somewhere along the Long 
Sault Rapids, the scouts saw sixteen Iroquois canoes. 
The Indians would have thrown down their goods 
and fled, but Radisson instantly got his forces in hand 
and held them with a grip of steel. Distributing 
loaded muskets to the bravest warriors, he pursued the 
Iroquois with a picked company of Hurons, Algon- 
quins, Sautaux, and Sioux. Beating their paddles, 
Radisson's company shouted the war-cry till the hills 
rang ; but all the warriors were careful not to waste an 
ounce of powder till within hitting range. The Iro- 
quois were not used to this sort of defence. They 
fled. The Long Sault was always the most dangerous 
part of the Ottawa. Radisson kept scouts to rear and 
fore, but the Iroquois had deserted their boats and 
were hanging on the flanks of the company to attempt 
an ambush. It was apparent that a fort had been 



\ 



RADISSON'S THIRD VOYAGE 



9S 



erected at the foot of the rapids. Leaving half the 
band in their boats, Radisson marched overland with 
two hundred warriors. Iroquois shots spattered from 
each side ; but the Huron muskets kept the assailants 
at a distance, and those of Radisson's warriors who 
had not guns were armed with bows and arrows, and 
wore a shield of butfalo skin dried hard as metal. 
The Iroquois rushed for the barricade at the foot of 




Voyageurs running the Rapids of the Ottawa River. 

the Sault. Five of them were picked off as they ran. 
For a moment the Iroquois were out of cover, and 
their weakness was betrayed. They had only one 
hundred and fifty men, while Radisson had five hun- 
dred ; but the odds would not long be in his favor. 
Ammunition was running out, and the enemy must be 
dislodged without wasting a shot. Radisson called back 
encouragement to his followers. They answered with a 
shout. Tying the beaver pelts in great bundles, the 



96 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Indians rolled the fur in front nearer and nearer the Iro- 
quois boats, keeping under shelter from the shots of the 
fort. The Iroquois must either lose their boats and be 
cut off from escape, or retire from the fort. It was not 
necessary for Radisson's warriors to fire a shot. Aban- 
doning even their baggage and glad to get off with 
their lives, the Iroquois dashed to save their boats. 

A terrible spectacle awaited Radisson inside the 
enclosure of the palisades.^ The scalps of dead 
Indians flaunted from the pickets. Not a tree but 
was spattered with bullet marks as with bird shot. 
Here and there burnt holes gaped in the stock- 
ades like wounds. Outside along the river bank lay 
the charred bones of captives who had been burned. 
The scarred fort told its own tale. Here refugees 
had been penned up by the Iroquois till thirst and 
starvation did their work. In the clay a hole had 
been dug for water by the parched victims, and the 
ooze through the mud eagerly scooped up. Only 
when he reached Montreal did Radisson learn the 
story of the dismantled fort. The rumor carried to 
the explorers on Lake Michigan of a thousand Iro- 

1 There is a mistake in Radisson's account here, which is easily checked by con- 
temporaneous accounts of Marie de T Incarnation and Dollier de Casson. Radisson 
describes DoUard's fight during his fourth trip in 1664, when it is quite plain that 
he means 1660. The fight has been so thoroughly described by Mr. Parkman, who 
drew his material from the two authorities mentioned, and the yesuit Relations, that 
I do not give it in detail. 1 give a brief account of Radisson's description of the 
tragedy. 



RADISSON'S TPHRD VOYAGE 97 

quois going on the war-path to exterminate the 
French had been only too true. Half the warriors 
were to assault Quebec, half to come down on Mon- 
treal from the Ottawa. One thing only could save 
the French — to keep the bands apart. Those on the 
Ottawa had been hunting all winter and must necessa- 
rily be short of powder. To intercept them, a gallant 
band of seventeen French, four Algonquins, and sixty 
Hurons led by Dollard took their stand at the Long 
Sault. The French and their Indian allies were boil- 
ing their kettles when two hundred Iroquois broke 
from the woods. There was no time to build a fort. 
Leaving their food, Dollard and his men threw them- 
selves into the rude palisades which Indians had 
erected the previous year. The Iroquois kept up a 
constant fire and sent for reenforcements of six hun- 
dred warriors, who were on the Richelieu. In defiance 
the Indians fighting for the French sallied out, scalped 
the fallen Iroquois, and hoisted the sanguinary trophies 
on long poles above the pickets. The enraged Iro- 
quois redoubled their fury. The fort was too small 
to admit all the Hurons; and when the Iroquois came 
up from the Richelieu with Huron renegades among 
their warriors, the Hurons deserted their French allies 
and went over in a body to the enemy. For two 
days the French had fought against two hundred 
Iroquois. For five more days they fought against 

H 



98 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

eight hundred. " The worst of it was," relates Rad- 
isson, " the French had no water, as we plainly saw ; 
for they had made a hole in the ground out of which 
they could get but little because the fort was on a 
hill. It was pitiable. There was not a tree but what 
was shot with bullets. The Iroquois had rushed to 
make a breach (in the wall). ... The French set fire 
to a barrel of powder to drive the Iroquois back . . . 
but it fell inside the fort. . . . Upon this, the Iro- 
quois entered ... so that not one of the French 
escaped. ... It was terrible ... for we came there 
eight days after the defeat." ^ 

Without a doubt it was DoUard's splendid fight that 
put fear in the hearts of the Iroquois who fled before 
Radisson. The passage to Montreal was clear. The 
boats ran the rapids without unloading ; but Groseil- 
lers almost lost his life. His canoe caught on a rock 
in midstream, but righting herself shot down safely to 
the landing with no greater loss than a damaged keel. 
The next day, after two years' absence, Radisson and 
Groseillers arrived at Montreal. A brief stop was 
made at Three Rivers for rest till twenty citizens had 

1 It will be noticed that Radisson's account of the battle at the Long Sault — which 
I have given in his own words as far as possible - differs in details from the only other 
accounts written bv contemporaries ; namely, Marie de 1' Incarnation, Dolber de Casson, 
the Abbe Belmont, and the Jesuits. All these must have written from hearsay, tor 
they were at Quebec and Montreal. Radisson was on the spot a week after the 
tragedy 5 so that his account may be supposed to be as accurate as any. 



RADISSON'S THIRD VOYAGE 99 

fitted out two shallops with cannon to escort the dis- 
coverers in fitting pomp to Quebec. As the fleet of 
canoes glided round Cape Diamond, battery and bas- 
tion thundered a welcome. Welcome they were, and 
thrice welcome ; for so ceaseless had been the Iroquois 
wars that the three French ships lying at anchor would 
have returned to France without a single beaver skin 
if the explorers had not come. Citizens shouted from 
the terraced heights of Chateau St. Louis, and bells 
rang out the joy of all New France over the discov- 
erers' return. Por a week Radisson and Groseillers 
were feted. Viscomte d'Argenson, the new governor, 
presented them with gifts and sent two brigantines to 
carry them home to Three Rivers. There they rested 
for the remainder of the year, Groseillers at his seign- 
iory with his wife, Marguerite; Radisson, under the 
parental roof ^ 

1 Mr. Benjamin Suite states that the explorers wintered on Green Bay, 1658-1659, 
then visited the tribes between Milwaukee and the river Wisconsin in the spring of 
1659. Here they learn of the Sioux and the Crces. They push southwest first, where 
they see the Mississippi between April and July, 1659. Thence they come back 
to the Sault. Then they winter, 16 59- 1 660, among the Sioux. I have not 
attempted to give the dates of the itinerary ; because it would be a matter of speculation 
open to contradiction ; but if we accept Radisson's account at all — and that account 
is corroborated by writers contemporaneous with him — we must then accept bis 
account of ivbere he went, and not the casual guesses of modern writers who have 
given his journal one hurried reading, and then sat down, without consulting docu- 
ments contemporaneous with Radisson, to inform the world of ivbtre he went. 
Because this is such a very sore point with two or three western historical societies, I 
beg to state the reasons why I have set down Radisson's itinerar)- as much farther west 
than has been generally believed, though how % west he went does not etiacc the main 



LofC. 



loo PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

and essential fact that Radisson tvas the true disco'verer of the Great Northwest. 
For that, let us give him a belated credit and not obscure the feat by disputes. 
(i) The term "Forked River" referred to the Missouri and Mississippi, not the 
Wisconsin and Mississippi. (2) No other rivers in that region are to be compared 
to the Ottawa and St. Lawrence but the Missouri and Mississippi. ( 3 ) The Mascou- 
tins, or People of the Fire, among whom Radisson found himself when he descended 
the Wisconsin from Green Bay, conducted him westward only as far as the tribes allied to 
them, the Mascoutins of the Missouri or Nebraska. Hence, Radisson going west-north- 
west to the Sioux — as he says he did — must have skirted much farther west than 
Wisconsin and Minnesota. (4) His descriptions of the Indians who knew tribes in 
trade with the Spaniards must refer to the Indians south of the Big Bend of the 
Missouri. (5) His description of the climate refers to the same region. (6) The 
yesuit Relations confirm beyond all doubt that he was among the main body of the 
great Sioux Confederacy. (7) Both his and the Jesuit reference is to the treeless 
prairie, which does not apply to the wooded lake regions of eastern Minnesota or 
northern Wisconsin. 

To me, it is simply astounding — and that is putting it mildly — that any one pre- 
tending to have read Radisson'' s Journal can accuse him of "claiming" to have 
"descended to the salt sea " (Gulf of Mexico). Radisson makes no such claim ; and 
to accuse him of such is like building a straw enemy for the sake of knocking him 
down, or stirring up muddy waters to make them look deep. The exact words of 
Radisson's narrative are : " We went into ye great river that divides itself in 2, where 
the hurrons with some Ottauake . . . had retired. . . . This nation have warrs 
against those of the Forked River ... so called because it has 2 branches the one 
towards the west, the other towards the South, wch. we believe runns towards Mexico, 
by the tokens they gave us . . . they told us the prisoners they take tells them that 
they have warrs against a nation . . . that have great beards and such knives as we 
have" . . . etc., etc., etc. . . . "which made us believe they were Europeans." 
This statement is no claim that Radisson went to Mexico, but only that he met tribes 
who knew tribes trading with Spaniards of Mexico. And yet, on the careless 
reading of this statement, one historian brands Radisson as a liar for "having claimed 
he went to Mexico." The thing would be comical in its impudence if it were not that 
many such misrepresentations of what Radisson wrote have dimmed the glory of his 
real achievements. 



CHAPTER IV 

1661-1664 

RADISSON'S FOURTH VOYAGE 

The Success of the Explorers arouses Envy — It becomes known 
that they have heard of the Famous Sea of the North — When 
they ask Permission to resume their Explorations, the French Gov- 
ernor refuses except on Condition of receiving Half the Profits — In 
Defiance, the Explorers steal off at Midnight — They return with 
a Fortune and are driven from New France 

Radisson was not yet twenty-six years of age, and 
his explorations of the Great Northwest had won 
him both fame and fortune. As Spain sought gold 
in the New Word, so France sought precious furs. 
Furs were the only possible means of wealth to the 
French colony, and for ten years the fur trade had 
languished owing to the Iroquois wars. For a year 
after the migration of the Hurons to Onondaga, not a 
single beaver skin was brought to Montreal. Then 
began the annual visits of the Indians from the Upper 
Country to the forts of the St. Lawrence. Sweeping 
down the northern rivers like wild-fowl, in far-spread, 
desultory flocks, came the Indians of the Pays cV en 

lOI 



I02 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Haut. Down the Ottawa to Montreal, down the St. 
Maurice to Three Rivers, down the Saguenay and 
round to Quebec, came the treasure-craft, — light fleets 
of birch canoes laden to the water-line with beaver 
skins. Whence came the wealth that revived the lan- 
guishing trade of New France ? From a vague, far 
Eldorado somewhere round a sea in the North. Hud- 
son had discovered this sea half a century before 
Radisson's day ; Jean Bourdon, a Frenchman, had 
coasted up Labrador in 1657 seeking the Bay of 
the North ; and on their last trip the explorers had 
learned from the Crees who came through the dense 
forests of the hinterland that there lay round this Bay 
of the North a vast country with untold wealth of 
furs. The discovery of a route overland to the north 
sea was to become the lodestar of Radisson's life.^ 

" We considered whether to reveal what we had 
learned," explains Radisson, " for we had noi been in 
the Bay of the North, knowing only what the Crees 
told us. We wished to discover it ourselves and have 
assurance before revealing anything." But the secret 
leaked out. Either Groseillers told his wife, or the 



1 The childish dispute whether Bourdon sailed into the bay and up to its head, or 
Diily to 50"^ N. latitude, does not concern Radisson's life, and, therefore, is ignored. 
One thing I can state with absolute certainty from having been up the coast of Labra- 
dor in a most inclement season, that Bourdon could not possibly have gone to and back 
from the inner waters of Hudson Bay between May 2 and August il. J. Edmond 
Roy and Mr. Suite both pronounce Bourdon a myth, and his trip a fabrication. 



RADISSON'S FOURTH VOYAGE 103 

Jesuits got wind of the news from the Indians ; for it 
was announced from Quebec that two priests, young 
La Valliere, the son of the governor at Three Rivers, 
six other Frenchmen, and some Indians would set out 
for the Bay of the North up the Saguenay. Radisson 
was invited to join the company as a guide. Needless 
to say that a man who had already discovered the 
Great Northwest and knew the secret of the road to 
the North, refused to play a second part among ama- 
teur explorers. Radisson promptly declined. Never- 
theless, in May, 1 66 1, the Jesuits, Gabriel Dreuillettes 
and Claude Dablon, accompanied by Couture, La Val- 
liere, and three others, set out with Indian guides for 
the discovery of Hudson's Bay by land. On June i 
they began to ascend the Saguenay, pressing through 
vast solitudes below the sombre precipices of the river. 
The rapids were frequent, the heat was terrific, and 
the portages arduous. Owing to the obstinacy of the 
guides, the French were stopped north of Lake St. 
John. Here the priests established a mission, and 
messengers were sent to Quebec for instructions. 

Meanwhile, Radisson and Groseillers saw that no 
time must be lost. If they would be first in the 
North, as they had been first in the West, they 
must set out at once. Two Indian guides from 
the Upper Country chanced to be in Montreal. 
Groseillers secured them bv bringing both to Three 



I04 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Rivers. Then the explorers formally applied to the 
French governor, D'Avaugour, for permission to go on 
the voyage of discovery. New France regulated the 
fur trade by license. Imprisonment, the galleys for 
life, even death on a second offence, were the punish- 
ments of those who traded without a license. The 
governor's answer revealed the real animus behind 
his enthusiasm for discovery. He would give the 
explorers a license if they would share half the profits 
of the trip with him and take along two of his ser- 
vants as auditors of the returns. One can imagine the 
indignation of the dauntless explorers at this answer. 
Their cargo of furs the preceding year had saved New 
France from bankruptcy. Offering to venture their 
lives a second time for the extension of the French 
domain, they were told they might do so if they would 
share half the profits with an avaricious governor. 
Their answer was characteristic. Discoverers were 
greater than governors ; still, if the Indians of the 
Upper Country invited his Excellency, Radisson and 
Groseillers would be glad to have the honor of his com- 
pany ; as for his servants — men who went on voyages 
of discovery had to act as both masters and servants. 

D'Avaugour was furious. He issued orders for- 
bidding the explorers to leave Three Rivers without 
his express permission. Radisson and Groseillers 
knew the penalties of ignoring this order. They 



RADISSON'S FOURTH VOYAGE 105 

asked the Jesuits to intercede for them. Though 
Gareau had been slain trying to ascend the Ottawa and 
Father Menard had by this time preached in the 
forests of Lake Michigan, the Jesuits had made no 
great discoveries in the Northwest. All they got for 
their intercessions was a snub.^ 

While messages were still passing between the gov- 
ernor and the explorers, there swept down the St. 
Lawrence to Three Rivers seven canoes of Indians 
from the Upper Country, asking for Radisson and 
Groseillers. The explorers were honorable to a 
degree. They notified the governor of Quebec that 
they intended to embark with the Indians. D'x-Vvau- 
gour stubbornly ordered the Indians to await the return 
of his party from the Saguenay. The Indians made 
off to hide in the rushes of Lake St, Peter. The 
sympathy of Three Rivers was with the explorers. 
Late one night in August Radisson and Groseillers — 
who was captain of the soldiers and carried the keys 
of the fort — slipped out from the gates, with a third 
Frenchman called Lariviere. As they stepped into 
their canoe, the sentry demanded, " Who goes ? " 

" Groseillers," came the answer through the dark. 

" God give you a good voyage, sir," called the 
sentrv, faithful to his captain rather than the governor. 

1 " Shame put upon them," says Radisson. Menard did not go out with Radisson 
and Groseillers, as is erroneously recorded. 



io6 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

The skiff pushed out on the lapping tide. A bend 
in the river — and the lights of the fort glimmering in 
long lines across the water had vanished behind. The 
prow of Radisson's boat was once more heading up- 
stream for the Unknown. Paddling with all swiftness 
through the dark, the three Frenchmen had come to 
the rushes of Lake St. Peter before daybreak. No 
Indians could be found. Men of softer mettle might 
have turned back. Not so Radisson. " We were 
well-armed and had a good boat," he relates, " so we 
resolved to paddle day and night to overtake the 
Indians." At the west end of the lake they came up 
with the north-bound canoes. For three days and 
nights they pushed on without rest. Naturally, 
Radisson did not pause to report progress at Montreal. 
Game was so plentiful in the surrounding forests that 
Iroquois hunters were always abroad in the regions of 
the St, Lawrence and Ottawa.^ Once they heard 
guns. Turning a bend in the river, they discovered 
five Iroquois boats, just in time to avoid them. That 
night the Frenchman, Lariviere, dreamed that he had 
been captured by the Mohawks, and he shouted out in 

1 I have purposely avoided stating whether Radisson went by way of Lake Ontario 
or the Ottawa. Dr. Dionne thinks that he went by Ontario and Niagara because 
Radisson refers to vast waterfalls under which a man could walk. Radisson gives the 
height of these fells as forty feet. Niagara are nearer three hundred; and the Chaudiere 
of the Ottawa would answer Radisson's description better, were it not that he says a man 
could go under the falls for a quarter of a mile. " The Lake of the Castors " plainly 
points to Lake Nipissing. 



RADISSON'S FOURTH VOYAGE 107 

such terror that the alarmed Indians rushed to embark. 
The next day they again came on the trail of Iroquois. 
The frightened Indians from the Upper Country 
shouldered their canoes and dashed through the 
woods. Lariviere could not keep up and was afraid 
to go back from the river lest he should lose his bear- 
ings. Fighting his way over windfall and rock, he 
sank exhausted and fell asleep. Far ahead of the 
Iroquois boats the Upper Country Indians came 
together again. The Frenchman was nowhere to be 
found. It was dark. The Indians would not wait to 
search. Radisson and Groseillers dared not turn back 
to face the irate governor. Lariviere was abandoned. 
Two weeks afterwards some French hunters found 
him lying on the rocks almost dead from starvation. 
He was sent back to Three Rivers, where D'Avaugour 
had him imprisoned. This outrage the inhabitants 
of Three Rivers resented. They forced the jail and 
rescued Lariviere. 

Three days after the loss of Lariviere Radisson and 
Groseillers caught up with seven more canoes of 
Indians from the Upper Country. The union of the 
two bands was just in time, for the next day they 
were set upon at a portage by the Iroquois. Order- 
ing the Indians to encase themselves in bucklers of 
matting and buffalo hide, Radisson led the assault on 
the Iroquois barricade. Trees were cut down, and 



io8 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

the Upper Indians rushed the rude fort with timbers 
extemporized into battering-rams. In close range of 
the enemy, Radisson made a curious discovery. 
Frenchmen were directing the Iroquois warriors. 
Who had sent these French to intercept the ex- 
plorers ? If Radisson suspected treachery on the part 




Chateau St. Louis, Quebec, 1669, from one of the oldest prints in 
existence. 



of jealous rivals from Quebec, it must have redoubled 
his fury; for the Indians from the Upper Country threw 
themselves in the breached barricade with such force 
that the Iroquois lost heart and tossed belts of wampum 
over the stockades to supplicate peace. It was almost 
night. Radisson's Indians drew off to consider the 
terms of peace. When morning came, behold an 



RADISSON'S FOURTH VOYAGE 109 

empty fort ! The French renegades had fled with 
their Indian allies. 

Glad to be rid of the first hindrance, the explorers 
once more sped north. In the afternoon, Radisson's 
scouts ran full tilt into a band of Iroquois laden with 
beaver pelts. The Iroquois were smarting from their 
defeat of the previous night ; and what was Radisson's 
amusement to see his own scouts and the Iroquois 
running from each other in equal fright, while the 
ground between lay strewn with booty ! Radisson 
rushed his Indians for the waterside to intercept the 
Iroquois' flight. The Iroquois left their boats and 
swam for the opposite shore, where they threw up the 
usual barricade and entrenched themselves to shoot on 
Radisson's passing canoes. Using the captured beaver 
pelts as shields, the Upper Indians ran the gantlet 
of the Iroquois fire with the loss of only one man. 

The slightest defeat may turn well-ordered retreat 
into panic. If the explorers went on, the Iroquois 
would hang to the rear of the travelling Indians and 
pick off warriors till the Upper Country people became 
so weakened they would fall an easy prey. Not flight, 
but fight, was Radisson's motto. He ordered his men 
ashore to break up the barricade. Darkness fell 
over the forest. The Iroquois could not see to fire. 
" They spared not their powder," relates Radisson, 
" but they made more noise than hurt." Attaching a 



no PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

fuse to a barrel of powder, Radisson threw this over 
into the Iroquois fort. The crash of the explosion 
was followed by a blaze of the Iroquois musketry that 
killed three of Radisson's men. Radisson then tore 
the bark off a birch tree, filled the bole with powder, 
and in the darkness crept close to the Iroquois barri- 
cade and set fire to the logs. Red tongues of fire 
leaped up, there was a roar as of wind, and the 
Iroquois fort was on fire. Radisson's men dashed 
through the fire, hatchet in hand. The Iroquois an- 
swered with their death chant. Friend and foe merged 
in the smoke and darkness. " We could not know 
one another in that skirmish of blows," says Radisson. 
"There was noise to terrify the stoutest man." In 
the midst of the melee a frightful storm of thunder 
and sheeted rain rolled over the forest. " To my 
mind," writes the disgusted Radisson, " that was some- 
thing extraordinary. I think the Devil himself sent 
that storm to let those wretches escape, so that they 
might destroy more innocents." The rain put out the 
fire. As soon as the storm had passed, Radisson kin- 
dled torches to search for the missing. Three of his 
men were slain, seven wounded. Of the enemy, eleven 
lay dead, five were prisoners. The rest of the Iro- 
quois had fled to the forest. The Upper Indians 
burned their prisoners according to their custom, and 
the night was passed in mad orgies to celebrate the 



RADISSON'S FOURTH VOYAGE iii 

victory. " The sleep we took did not make our heads 
giddy," writes Radisson. 

The next day they encountered more Iroquois. 
Both sides at once began building forts ; but when he 
could, Radisson always avoided war. Having gained 
victory enough to hold the Iroquois in check, he 
wanted no massacre. That night he embarked his 
men noiselessly ; and never once stopping to kindle 
camp-fire, they paddled from Friday night to Tuesday 
morning. The portages over rocks in the dark cut 
the voyageurs' moccasins to shreds. Every landing 
was marked with the blood of bruised feet. Some- 
times they avoided leaving any trace of themselves 
by walking in the stream, dragging their boats along 
the edge of the rapids. By Tuesday the Indians 
were so fagged that they could go no farther without 
rest. Canoes were moored in the hiding of the rushes 
till the voyageurs slept. They had been twenty-two 
days going from Three Rivers to Lake Nipissing, and 
had not slept one hour on land. 

It was October when they came to Lake Superior. 
The forests were painted in all the glorv of autumn, 
and game abounded. White fish appeared under the 
clear, still waters of the lake like shoals of floating 
metal ; bears were seen hulking away from the water- 
ing places of sandy shores ; and wild geese whistled 
overhead. After the terrible dangers of the voyage, 



112 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

with scant sleep and scanter fare, the country seemed, 
as Radisson says, a terrestrial paradise. The Indians 
gave solemn thanks to their gods of earth and forest, 
" and we," writes Radisson, " to the God of gods." 
Indian summer lay on the land. November found the 
explorers coasting the south shore of Lake Superior. 
They passed the Island of Michilimackinac with its 
stone arches. Radisson heard from the Indians of the 
copper mines. He saw the pictured rocks that were to 
become famous for beauty. " I gave it the name of St. 
Peter because that was my name and I was the first 
Christian to see it," he writes of the stone arch. 
" There were in these places very deep caves, caused 
by the violence of the waves." Jesuits had been on 
the part of Lake Superior near the Sault, and poor 
Menard perished in the forests of Lake Michigan ; 
but Radisson and Groseillers were the first white men 
to cruise from south to west and west to north, 
where a chain of lakes and waterways leads from the 
Minnesota lake country to the prairies now known as 
Manitoba. Before the end of November the explor- 
ers rounded the western end of Lake Superior and 
proceeded northwest. Radisson records that they 
came to great winter encampments of the Crees ; and 
the Crees did not venture east for fear of Sautaux 
and Iroquois. He mentions a river of Sturgeons, 
where was a great store of fish. 



RADISSON'S FOURTH VOYAGE 113 

The Crees wished to conduct the two white men to 
the wooded hike region, northwest towards the land 
of the Assiniboines, where Indian famihes took 
refuge on islands from those tigers of the plains — the 
Sioux — who were invincible on horseback but less 
skilful in canoes. The rivers were beginning to freeze. 
Boats were abandoned ; but there was no snow for 
snow-shoe travelling, and the explorers were unable to 
transport the goods brought for trade. Bidding the 
Crees go to their families and bring back slaves to carry 
the baggage, Radisson and Groseillers built themselves 
the first fort and the first fur post between the Missouri 
and the North Pole. It was evidently somewhere 
west of Duluth in either what is now Minnesota or 
northwestern Ontario. 

This fur post was the first habitation of civilization 
in all the Great Northwest. Not the railway, not 
the cattle trail, not the path of forward-marching 
empire purposely hewing a way through the wilder- 
ness, opened the West. It was the fur trade that 
found the West. It was the fur trade that explored 
the West. It was the fur trade that wrested the 
West from savagery. The beginning was in the 
little fort built by Radisson and Groseillers. No great 
factor in human progress ever had a more insignificant 
beginning. 



114 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

The fort was rushed up by two men ahnost starving 
for food. It was on the side of a river, built in the 
shape of a triangle, with the base at the water side. 
The walls were of unbarked logs, the roof of thatched 
branches interlaced, with the door at the river side. 
In the middle of the earth floor, so that the smoke 
would curl up where the branches formed a funnel or 
chimney, was the fire. On the right of the fire, two 
hewn logs overlaid with pine boughs made a bed. 
On the left, another hewn log acted as a table. 
Jumbled everywhere, hanging from branches and 
knobs of branches, were the firearms, clothing, and 
merchandise of the two fur traders. Naturally, a fort 
two thousand miles from help needed sentries. Radis- 
son had not forgotten his boyhood days of Onondaga. 
He strung carefully concealed cords through the grass 
and branches around the fort. To these bells were 
fastened, and the bells were the sentries. The two 
white men could now sleep soundly without fear of 
approach. This fort, from which sprang the buoyant, 
aggressive, prosperous, free life of the Great North- 
west, was founded and built and completed in two days. 

The West had begun. ^ 

1 The two main reasons why I think that Radisson and Groseillers were now moving 
up that chain of lakes and rivers between Minnesota and Canada, connecting Lake of the 
Woods with Lake Winnipeg, are : ( i ) Oldmixon says it was the report of the Assini- 
boine Indians from Lake Assiniboine (Lake Winnipeg) that led Radisson to seek for 
the Bay of the North overland. These Assiniboines did not go to the bay by way 



RADISSON'S FOURTH VOYAGE 115 

It was a beginning which every Western pioneer was 
to repeat for the next two hundred years : first, the 
log cabins ; then, the fight with the wilderness for 
food. 

Radisson, being the younger, went into the woods 
to hunt, while Groseillers kept house. Wild geese 
and ducks were whistling south, but " the whistling 
that I made," writes Radisson, " was another music 
than theirs ; for I killed three and scared the rest." 
Strange Indians came through the forest, but were not 
admitted to the tiny fort, lest knowledge of the traders' 
weakness should tempt theft. Many a night the 
explorers were roused by a sudden ringing of the bells 
or crashing through the underbrush, to find that wild 
animals had been attracted by the smell of meat, and 
wolverine or wildcat was attempting to tear through 
the matted branches of the thatched roof. The desire 
for firearms has tempted Indians to murder many a 
trader; so Radisson and Groseillers cached a\\ the sup- 
plies that they did not need in a hole across the 
river. News of the two white men alone in the north- 
ern forest spread like wild-fire to the different Sau- 
taux and Ojibway encampments ; and Radisson 

of Lake Superior, but by way of Lake Winnipeg. (2) A memoire written by De la 
Chcsnaye in 1696 — see Documents Nou-velU France, 1492-1712 — distinctly refers 
to a coureur's trail from Lake Superior to Lake Assiniboine or Lake Winnipeg. There 
is no record of any Frenchmen but Radisson and Groseillers having followed such a trail 
to the land of the Assiniboines — the Manitoba of to-day — before 1676. 



ii6 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

invented another protection in addition to the bells. 
He rolled gunpowder in twisted tubes of birch bark, 
and ran a circle of this round the fort. Putting a 
torch to the birch, he surprised the Indians by dis- 
playing to them a circle of fire running along the ground 
in a series of jumps. To the Indians it was magic. 
The two white men were engirt with a mystery that 
defended them from all harm. Thus white men 
passed their first winter in the Great Northwest. 

Toward winter four hundred Crees came to escort 
the explorers to the wooded lake region yet farther 
west towards the land of the Assiniboines, the modern 
Manitoba. " We were Caesars," writes Radisson. 
"There was no one to contradict us. We went away 
free from any burden, while those poor miserables 
thought themselves happy to carry our equipage in the 
hope of getting a brass ring, or an awl, or a needle. 
. . . They admired our actions more than the fools of 
Paris their king. . . } They made a great noise, 
calling us gods and devils. We marched four days 
through the woods. The country was beautiful with 
clear parks. At last we came within a league of the 
Cree cabins, where we spent the night that we might 
enter the encampment with pomp the next day. The 

1 One can guess that a man who wrote in that spirit two centuries before the 
French Revolution would not be a sycophant in courts, — which, perhaps, helps to 
explain the conspiracy of silence that obscured Radisson's fame. 



RADISSON'S FOURTH VOYAGE 117 

swiftest Indians ran ahead to warn the people of our 
coming." Embarking in boats, where the water was 
open, the two explorers came to the Cree lodges. They 
were welcomed with shouts. Messengers marched in 
front, scattering presents from the white men, — kettles 
to call all to a feast of friendship ; knives to encourage 
the warriors to be brave ; swords to signify that the 
white men would fight all enemies of the Cree ; and 
abundance of trinkets — needles and awls and combs 
and tin mirrors — for the women. The Indians pros- 
trated themselves as slaves ; and the explorers were 
conducted to a grand council of welcome. A feast 
was held, followed by a symbolic dance in celebration 
of the white men's presence. 

Their entry to the Great Northwest had been a 
triumph : but they could not escape the privations of 
the explorer's life. Winter set in with a severity to 
make up for the long, late autumn. Snow fell contin- 
uously till day and night were as one, the sombre 
forests muffled to silence with the wild creatures 
driven for shelter to secret haunts. Four hundred 
men had brought the explorers north. Allowing an 
average of four to each family, there must have been 
sixteen hundred people in the encampment of Crees. 
To prevent famine, the Crees scattered to the winter 
hunting-grounds, arranging to come together again in 
two months at a northern rendezvous. When Radis- 



ii8 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

son and Groseillers came to the rendezvous, they 
learned that the gathering hunters had had poor luck. 
Food was short. To make matters worse, heavy 
rains were followed by sharp frost. The snow 
became iced over, destroying rabbit and grouse, which 
feed the large game. Radisson noticed that the 
Indians often snatched food from the hands of 
hungry children. More starving Crees continued to 
come into camp. Soon the husbands were taking 
the wives' share of food, and the women were sub- 
sisting on dried pelts. The Crees became too weak 
to carry their snow-shoes, or to gather wood for fire. 
The cries of the dying broke the deathly stillness of 
the winter forest; and the strong began to dog the 
footsteps of the weak. " Good God, have mercy on 
these innocent people," writes Radisson ; " have mercy 
on us who acknowledge Thee ! " Digging through the 
snow with their rackets, some of the Crees got roots 
to eat. Others tore the bark from trees and made a 
kind of soup that kept them alive. Two weeks after the 
famine set in, the Indians were boiling the pulverized 
bones of the waste heap. After that the only food 
was the buckskin that had been tanned for clothing. 
" We ate it so eagerly," writes Radisson, " that our 
gums did bleed. . . . We became the image of 
death." Before the spring five hundred Crees had 
died of famine. Radisson and Groseillers scarcely 



RADISSON'S FOURTH VOYAGE 119 

had strength to drag the dead from the tepees. The 
Indians thought that Groseillers had been fed by 
some fiend, for his heavy, black beard covered his 
thin face. Radisson they loved, because his beardless 
face looked as gaunt as theirs.^ 

Relief came with the breaking of the weather. The 
rain washed the iced snows away ; deer began to 
roam ; and with the opening of the rivers came two 
messengers from the Sioux to invite Radisson and 
Groseillers to visit their nation. The two Sioux 
had a dog, which they refused to sell for all Radis- 
son's gifts. The Crees dared not offend the Sioux 
ambassadors by stealing the w-orthless cur on which 
such hungrv eyes were cast, but at night Radisson 
slipped up to the Sioux tepee. The dog came prowl- 
ing out. Radisson stabbed it so suddenly that it 
dropped without a sound. Hurrying back, he boiled 
and fed the meat to the famishing Crees. When the 
Sioux returned to their own country, they sent a score 
of slaves with food for the starving encampment. No 
doubt Radisson had plied the first messengers with 

1 My reason for thinking that this region was farther north than Minnesota is the 
size of the Cree winter camp ; but I have refrained from tr>ing to localize this part of 
the trip, except to say it was west and north of Duluth. Some writers recognize in the 
description parts of Minnesota, others the hinterland between Lake Superior and 
James Bay. In the light of the mcmoirc of 1696 sent to the French government, I 
am unable to regard this itinerary as any other than the famous fiir traders' trail between 
Lake Superior and Lake Winnipeg by way of Sturgeon River and the Lake of the 
Woods. 



I20 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

gifts ; for the slaves brought word that thirty picked 
runners from the Sioux were coming to escort the 
white men to the prairie. To receive their bene- 
factors, and also, perhaps, to show that they were 
not defenceless, the Crees at once constructed a fort ; 
for Cree and Sioux had been enemies from time im- 
memorial. In two days came the runners, clad only 
in short garments, and carrying bow and quiver. 
The Crees led the young braves to the fort. Kettles 
were set out. Fagged from the long run, the Sioux 
ate without a word. At the end of the meal one 
rose. Shooting an arrow into the air as a sign that 
he called Deity to witness the truth of his words, he 
proclaimed in a loud voice that the elders of the 
Sioux nation would arrive next day at the fort to 
make a treaty with the French. 

The news was no proof of generosity. The Sioux 
were the great warriors of the West. They knew 
very well that whoever formed an alliance with the 
French would obtain firearms ; and firearms meant 
victory against all other tribes. The news set the 
Crees by the ears. Warriors hastened from the forests 
to defend the fort. The next day came the elders 
of the Sioux in pomp. They were preceded by the 
young braves bearing bows and arrows and buffalo- 
skin shields on which were drawn figures portraying 
victories. Their hair was turned up in a stiff crest 




ja^^:^ai£l^i 



RADISSON'S FOURTH VOYAGE 121 

surmounted by eagle feathers, and their bodies were 
painted bright vermilion. Behind came the elders, 
with medicine-bags of rattlesnake skin streaming from 
their shoulders and long strings of bears' claws hang- 
ing from neck and wrist. They were dressed in 
buckskin, garnished with porcupine quills, and wore 
moccasins of buffiilo hide, with the hair dangling from 
the heel. In the belt of each was a skull-cracker — a 
sort of sling stone with a long handle — and a war- 
hatchet. Each elder carried a peace pipe set with 
precious stones, and stuck in the stem were the quills 
of the war eagle to represent enemies slain. Women 
slaves followed, loaded with skins tor the elders' 
tents. 

A great fire had been kindled inside the court of 
the Cree stockades. Round the pavilion the Sioux 
elders seated themselves. First, they solemnly smoked 
the calumet ot peace. Then the chief of the Sioux 
rose and chanted a song, giving thanks tor their safe 
journey. Setting aside gifts of rare beaver pelts, he 
declared that the Sioux had come to make friends with 
the French, who were masters of peace and war; that 
the elders would conduct the white men back to the 
Sioux country ; that the mountains were levelled and 
the valleys cast up, and the way made smooth, and 
branches strewn on the ground for the white men's 
feet, and streams bridged, and the doors ot the tepees 



122 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

open. Let the French come to the Sioux! The In- 
dians would die for the French. A gift was presented 
to invoke the friendship of the Crees. Another rich 
gift of furs let out the secret of the Sioux' anxiety : 
it was that the French might give the Sioux " thunder 
weapons," meaning guns. 

The speech being finished, the Crees set a feast 
before their guests. To this feast Radisson and 
Groseillers came in a style that eclipsed the Sioux. 
Cree warriors marched in front, carrying guns. Radis- 
son and Groseillers were dressed in armor.^ At their 
belts they wore pistol, sword, and dagger. On their 
heads were crowns of colored porcupine quills. Two 
pages carried the dishes and spoons to be used at the 
feast; and four Cree magicians followed with smoking 
calumets in their hands. Four Indian maids carried 
bearskins to place on the ground when the two ex- 
plorers deigned to sit down. Inside the fort more 
than six hundred councillors had assembled. Out- 
side were gathered a thousand spectators. As Radis- 
son and Groseillers entered, an old Cree flung a peace 
pipe at the explorers' feet and sang a song of thanks- 
giving to the sun that he had lived to see " those 
terrible men whose words (guns) made the earth 
quake." Stripping himself of his costly furs, he 
placed them on the white men's shoulders, shouting : 

1 Radhsot: Relations, p. 207. 



RADISSON'S FOURTH VOYAGE 123 

" Ye are masters over us : dead or alive, dispose of 
us as you will." 

Then Radisson rose and chanted a song, in which 
he declared that the French took the Crees for breth- 
ren and would defend them. To prove his words, 
he threw powder in the fire and had twelve guns shot 
off, which frightened the Sioux almost out of their 
senses. A slave girl placed a coal in the calumet. 
Radisson then presented gifts : the first to testify that 
the French adopted the Sioux for friends ; the second 
as a token that the French also took the Crees for 
friends; the third as a sign that the French "would 
reduce to powder with heavenly fire " any one who dis- 
turbed the peace between these tribes. The fourth 
gift was in grateful recognition of the Sioux' courtesy 
in granting free passage through their country. The 
gifts consisted of kettles and hatchets and awls and 
needles and looking-glasses and bells and combs and 
paint, but not guns. Radisson's speech was received 
with " Ho, ho's " of applause. Sports began. Radis- 
son offered prizes for racing, jumping, shooting with 
the bow, and climbing a greased post. All the while, 
musicians were sinking and beating the tom-tom, a 
drum made of butfalo hide stretched on hoops and 
filled with water. 

Fourteen days later Radisson and Groseillers set out 
for the Sioux country, or what are now known as the 



124 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Northwestern states.^ On the third voyage Radisson 
came to the Sioux from the south. On this voyage, 
he came to them from the northeast. He found that 
the tribe numbered seven thousand men of fighting age. 
He remarked that the Sioux used a kind of coke or 
peat for fire instead of wood. While he heard of the 
tribes that used coal for fire, he does not relate that he 
went to them on this trip. Again he heard of the 
mountains far inland, where the Indians found copper 
and lead and a kind of stone that was transparent.'^ 
He remained six weeks with the Sioux, hunting buf- 
falo and deer. Between the Missouri and the Sas- 
katchewan ran a well-beaten trail northeastward, which 
was used by the Crees and the Sioux in their wars. 
It is probable that the Sioux escorted Radisson back 
to the Crees by this trail, till he was across what is now 
the boundary between Minnesota and Canada, and 
could strike directly eastward for the Lake of the 
Woods region, or the hinterland between James Bay 
and Lake Superior. 

In spring the Crees went to the Bay of the North, 
which Radisson was seeking ; and after leaving the 

1 We are now on safe ground. There was a well-known trail from what is now 
known as the Rat Portage region to the great Sioux camps west of the Mississippi and 
Red River valleys. But again I refuse to lay myself open to controversy by trying defi- 
nitely to give either the dates or exact places of this trip. 

2 If any proof is wanted that Radisson's journeyings took him far west of the Mis- 
sissippi, these details afford it. 



RADISSON'S FOURTH VOYAGE 125 

Sioux, the two explorers struck for the Httle fort north 
of Lake Superior, where they had cached their goods. 
Spring in the North was later than spring in the 
South ; but the shore ice of the Northern lakes had 
already become soft. To save time they cut across 
the lakes of Minnesota, dragging their sleighs on the 
ice. Groseillers' sleigh was loaded with pelts obtained 
from the Sioux, and the elder man began to fag. 
Radisson took the heavy sleigh, giving Groseillers the 
lighter one. About twelve miles out from the shore, 
on one of these lakes, the ice suddenly gave, and 
Radisson plunged through to his waist. It was as 
dangerous to turn back as to go on. If they deserted 
their merchandise, they would have nothing to trade 
with the Indians; but when Radisson succeeded in 
extricating himself, he was so badly strained that he 
could not go forward another step. There was no 
sense in risking both their lives on the rotten ice. 
He urged Groseillers to go on. Groseillers dared not 
hesitate. Laying two sleds as a wind-break on each 
side ot Radisson, he covered the injured man with 
robes, consigned him to the keeping of God, and 
hurried over the ice to obtain help from the Crees. 
The Crees got Radisson ashore, and there he lav in 
agonv for eight davs. The Indians were preparing to 
set out for the North. Thev invited Radisson to go 
with them. His sprain had not healed; but he could 



126 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

not miss the opportunity of approaching the Bay of the 
North. For two days he marched with the hunters, 
enduring torture at every step. The third day he 
could go no farther and they deserted him. Groseillers 
had gone hunting with another band of Crees. Radis- 
son had neither gun nor hatchet, and the Indians left 
him only ten pounds of pemmican. After a short rest 
he journeyed painfully on, following the trail of the 
marching Crees. On the fifth day he found the frame 
of a deserted wigwam. Covering it with branches of 
trees and kindhng a fire to drive off beasts of prey, he 
crept in and lay down to sleep. He was awakened 
by a crackling of flame. The fire had caught the pine 
boughs and the tepee was in a blaze. Radisson flung 
his snow-shoes and clothing as far as he could, and 
broke from the fire-trap. Half-dressed and lame, 
shuddering with cold and hunger, he felt through the 
dark over the snow for his clothing. A far cry rang 
through the forest like the bay of the wolf pack. 
Radisson kept solitary watch till morning, when he 
found that the cry came from Indians sent out to find 
him by Groseillers. He was taken to an encampment, 
where the Crees were building canoes to go to the Bay 
of the North. 

The entire band, with the two explorers, then launched 
on the rivers flowing north. " We were in danger to 
perish a thousand times from the ice jam," writes 



RADISSON'S FOURTH VOYAGE 127 

Radisson. ". . . At last we came full sail from a deep 
bay ... we came to the seaside, where we found an 
old house all demolished and battered with bullets. 
. . . They (the Crees) told us about Europeans. . . . 
We went from isle to isle all that summer. . . . This 
region had a great store of cows (caribou). . . . We 
went farther to see the place that the Indians were to 
pass the summer. . . . The river (where they went) 
came from the lake that empties itself in . . . the 
Saguenay ... a hundred leagues from the great river 
of Canada (the St. Lawrence) ... to where we were 
in the Bay of the North, . . . We passed the summer 
quietly coasting the seaside. . . . The people here 
burn not their prisoners, but knock them on the head. 
. . . They have a store of turquoise. . . . They 
find green stones, very fine, at the same Bay of the 
Sea (labradorite). . . . We went up another river to 
the Upper Lake (Winnipeg)."^ 

For years the dispute has been waged with zeal 
worthy of a better cause whether Radisson referred to 
Hudson Bay in this passage. The French claim that 
he did ; the English that he did not. " The house 
demolished with bullets " was probably an old trading 
post, contend the English ; but there was no trading 
post except Radisson's west of Lake Superior at that 
time, retort the French. By "cows" Radisson 

1 Radisson's Journal, pp. 224, 225, 226. 



128 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

meant buffalo, and no buffalo were found as far east 
as Hudson Bay, say the English; by "cows" Radis- 
son meant caribou and deer, and herds of these fre- 
quented the shores of Hudson Bay, answer the 
French. No river comes from the Saguenay to Hud- 
son Bay, declare the English ; yes, but a river comes 
from the direction of the Saguenay, and was followed 
by subsequent explorers, assert the French.^ The 
stones of turquoise and green were agates from Lake 
Superior, explain the English ; the stones were labra- 
dorites from the east coast of the Bay, maintain the 
French, So the childish quarrel has gone on for two 
centuries. England and France alike conspired to 
crush the man while he lived ; and when he died they 
quarrelled over the glory of his discoveries. The point 
is not whether Radisson actually wet his oars in the 
different indentations of Hudson and James bays. The 
point is that he found where it lay from the Great 
Lakes, and discovered the watershed sloping north 
from the Great Lakes to Hudson Bay. This was 
new ground, and entitled Radisson to the fame of a 
discoverer. 



^ Mr. A. P. Low, who has made the most thorough exploration of Labrador 
and Hudson Bay of any man living, says, "Rupert River forms the discharge 
of the Mistassini lakes . . . and empties into Rupert Bay close to the mouth of 
the Nottoway River, and rises in a number of lakes close to the height of land 
dividing it from the St. Maurice River, which joins the St. Lawrence at Three 
Rivers.' ' 



RADISSON'S FOURTH VOYAGE 129 

From the Indians of the bay, Radisson heard of 
another lake leagues to the north, whose upper end 
was always frozen. This was probably some vague 
story of the lakes in the region that was to become 
known two centuries later as Mackenzie River. The 
spring of 1663 found the explorers back in the Lake 
of the Woods region accompanied by seven hundred 
Indians of the Upper Country. The company filled 
three hundred and sixty canoes. Indian girls dived 
into the lake to push the canoes off, and stood chant- 
ing a song of good-speed till the boats had glided out 
of sight through the long, narrow, rocky gaps of the 
Lake of the Woods. At Lake Superior the company 
paused to lay up a supply of smoked sturgeon. At 
the Sault four hundred Crees turned back. The rest 
of the Indians hoisted blankets on fishing-poles, and, 
with a west wind, scudded across Lake Huron to 
Lake Nipissing. From Lake Nipissing they rode 
safely down the Ottawa to Montreal. Cannon were 
fired to welcome the discoverers, for New France 
was again on the verge of bankruptcy from a beaver 
famine. 

A different welcome awaited them at Quebec. 
D'Argenson, the governor, was about to leave for 
France, and nothing had come of the Jesuit expe- 
dition up the Saguenay. He had already sent Cou- 
ture, for a second time, overland to find a way to 



I30 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Hudson Bay ; but no word had come from Couture, 
and the governor's time was up. The explorers had 
disobeyed him in leaving without his permission. 
Their return with a fortune of pelts was the salvation 
of the impecunious governor. From 1627 to 1663 
five distinct fur companies, organized under the pat- 
ronage of royalty, had gone bankrupt in New France.^ 
Therefore, it became a loyal governor to protect his 
Majesty's interests. Besides, the revenue collectors 
could claim one-fourth of all returns in beaver ex- 
cept from posts farmed expressly for the king. No 
sooner had Radisson and Groseillers come home than 
D'Argenson ordered Groseillers imprisoned. He then 
fined the explorers $20,000, to build a fort at Three 
Rivers, giving them leave to put their coats-of- 
arms on the gate ; a $30,000 fine was to go to the 
public treasury of New France ; $70,000 worth of 
beaver was seized as the tax due the revenue. Of a 
cargo worth $300,000 in modern money, Radisson 
and Groseillers had less than $20,000 left.^ 

1 Les Compagnies dc Colonisation sous Pancien regime, by Chailly-Bert. 

2 Oldmixon says : " Radisson and Groseillers met with some savages on the Lake 
of Assiniboin, and from them they learned that they might go by land to the bottom of 
Hudson's Bay, where the English had not been yet, at James Bay; upon which they 
desired them to conduct them thither, and the savages accordingly did it. They 
returned to the Upper Lake the same way they came, and thence to Quebec, where 
they offered the principal merchants to carry ships to Hudson's Bay ; but their project 
was rejected." Vol. I, p. 548. Radisson's figures are given as " pounds " ; but by £ 
did he mean English "pound" or French livre, that is 17^ ? A franc in 1660 equalled 
the modem dollar. 



RADISSON'S FOURTH VOYAGE 131 

Had D'Argenson and his successors encouraged 
instead of persecuted the discoverers, France could 
have claimed all North America but the narrow strip 
of New England on the east and the Spanish settle- 
ments on the south. Having repudiated Radisson 
and Groseillers, France could not claim the fruits of 
deeds which she punished.^ 

1 The exact tribes mentioned in the Mimoire of i6g6, with whom the French were 
in trade in the West are: On the " Missoury " and south of it, the Mascoutins and 
Sioux; two hundred miles beyond the " Missisipy " the Issaguy, the Octbatons, the 
Omtous, of w^hom were Sioux capable of mustering four thousand warriors ; south of 
Lake Superior, the Sauteurs ; on " Sipisagny, the river which is the discharge of Lake 
Asemipigon " (Winnipeg), the " Nation of the Grand Rat," Algonquins numbering 
two thousand, who traded with the English of Hudson Bay ; De la Chesnaye adds in 
his memoire details of the trip from Lake Superior to the lake of the Assiniboines. 
Knowing what close co-workers he and Radisson were, we can guess where he got his 
information. 



CHAPTER V 

1664-1676 

RADISSON RENOUNCES ALLEGIANCE TO TWO 
CROWNS 

Rival Traders thwart the Plans of the Discoverers — Entangled in 
Lawsuits, the two French Explorers go to England — The Organi- 
zation of the Hudson's Bay Fur Company — Radisson the Storm- 
centre of International Intrigue — Boston Merchants in the 
Struggle to capture the Fur Trade 

Henceforth Radisson and Groseillers were men 
without a country. Twice their return from the 
North with cargoes of beaver had saved New France 
from ruin. They had discovered more of America 
than all the other explorers combined. Their reward 
was jealous rivalry that reduced them to beggary ; 
injustice that compelled them to renounce allegiance to 
two crowns ; obloquy during a lifetime ; and oblivion 
for two centuries after their death. The very force 
of unchecked impulse that carries the hero over all 
obstacles may also carry him over the bounds of cau- 
tion and compromise that regulate the conduct of 
other men. This was the case with Radisson and 



RADISSON CHANGES ALLEGIANCE 133 

Groseillers. They were powerless to resist the extor- 
tion of the French governor. The Company of One 
Hundred Associates had given place to the Company 
of the West Indies. This trading venture had been 
organized under the direct patronage of the king.' It 
had been proclaimed from the pulpits of France. 
Privileges were promised to all who subscribed for the 
stock. The Company was granted a blank list of titles 
to bestow on its patrons and servants. No one else 
in New France might engage in the beaver trade ; no 
one else might buy skins from the Indians and sell 
the pelts in Europe ; and one-fourth of the trade went 
for public revenue. In spite of all the privileges, fur 
company after fur company failed in New France; but 
to them Radisson had to sell his furs, and when the 
revenue officers went over the cargo, the minions of 
the governor also seized a share under pretence of a 
fine for trading without a license. 

Groseillers was furious, and sailed for France to 
demand restitution ; but the Intriguing courtiers 
proved too strong for him. Though he spent 
X 1 0,000, nothing was done. D'Avaugour had come 
back to France, and stockholders of the jealous fur 
company were all-powerful at court. Groseillers then 
relinquished all idea of restitution, and tried to interest 
merchants in another expedition to Hudson Bay by 

1 ChaiUy-Bert. 



134 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

way of the sea.^ He might have spared himself the 
trouble. His enthusiasm only aroused the quiet smile 
of supercilious indifference. His plans were regarded 
as chimerical. Finally a merchant of Rochelle half 
promised to send a boat to Isle Percee at the mouth 




Martello Tower of Refuge in Time of Indian Wars — Three Rivers. 

of the St. Lawrence in 1664. Groseillers had already 
wasted six months. Eager for action, he hurried back 
to Three Rivers, where Radisson awaited him. The 



1 The Jesuit expeditions of Dablon and Dreuillettes in 1661 had failed to reach the 
bay overland. Cabot had coasted Labrador in 1497 5 Captain Davis had gone north of 
Hudson Bay in 1585-1587; Hudson had lost his life there in 1610. Sir Thomas 
Button had explored Baffin's Land, Nelson River, and the Button Islands in 1612; 
Munck, the Dane, had found the mouth of the Churchill River in 1619 ; James and 
Fox had explored the inland sea in 1631 ; Shapley had brought a ship up from Boston 
in 1640 ; and Bourdon, the Frenchman, had gone up to the straits in 1656-1657. 



RADISSON CHANGES ALLEGIANCE 135 

two secretly took passage in a fishing schooner to 
Anticosti, and from Anticosti went south to Isle 
Percee. Here a Jesuit just out from France bore the 
message to them that no ship would come. The 
promise had been a put-off to rid France of the 
enthusiast. New France had treated them with 
injustice, Old France with mockery. Which way 
should they turn .? They could not go back to Three 
Rivers. This attempt to go to Hudson Bay without 
a license laid them open to a second fine. Baffled, 
but not beaten, the explorers did what ninety-nine 
men out of a hundred would have done in similar 
circumstances — they left the country. Some rumor 
of their intention to abandon New France must have 
gone abroad ; for when they reached Cape Breton, 
their servants grumbled so loudly that a mob of 
Frenchmen threatened to burn the explorers. Dis- 
missing their servants, Radisson and Groseillers 
escaped to Port Royal, Nova Scotia. 

In Port Royal they met a sea-captain from Boston, 
Zechariah Gillam, who offered his ship for a voyage 
to Hudson Bay, but the season was far spent when 
they set out. Captain Gillam was afraid to enter the 
ice-locked bay so late in summer. The boat turned 
back, and the trip was a loss. This run of ill-luck 
had now lasted for a year. They still had some 
money from the Northern trips, and they signed a 



136 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

contract with ship-owners of Boston to take two 
vessels to Hudson Bay the following spring. Provi- 
sions must be laid up for the long voyage. One of 
the ships was sent to the Grand Banks for fish. 
Rounding eastward past the crescent reefs of Sable 
Island, the ship was caught by the beach-combers and 
totally wrecked on the drifts of sand. Instead of 
sailing for Hudson Bay in the spring of 1665, Radis- 
son and Groseillers were summoned to Boston to 
defend themselves in a lawsuit for the value of the 
lost vessel. They were acquitted ; but lawsuits on 
the heels of misfortune exhausted the resources of the 
adventurers. The exploits of the two Frenchmen had 
become the sensation of Boston. Sir Robert Carr, 
one of the British commissioners then in the New 
England colonies, urged Radisson and Groseillers to 
renounce allegiance to a country that had shown only 
ingratitude, and to come to England.^ When Sir 
George Cartwright sailed from Nantucket on Au- 
gust I, 1665, he was accompanied by Radisson and 
Groseillers.^ Misfortune continued to dog them. 
Within a few days' sail of England, their ship en- 

1 George Carr, writing to Lord Arlington on December 14, 1665, says : " Hearing 
some Frenchmen discourse in New England ... of a great trade of beaver, and after- 
ward making proof of what they had said, he thought them the best present he could 
possibly make his Majesty and persuaded them to come to England." 

2 Colonel Richard Nicolls, writing on July 31, 1665, says he " supposes Col. Geo. 
Cartwright is now at sea." 



RADISSON CHANGES ALLEGIANCE 137 

countered the Dutch cruiser Caper. For two 
hours the ships poured broadsides of shot into each 
other's hulls. The masts were torn from the English 
vessel. She was boarded and stripped, and the 
Frenchmen were thoroughly questioned. Then the 
captives were all landed in Spain. Accompanied by 
the two Frenchmen, Sir George Cartwright hastened 
to England early in 1666. The plague had driven 
the court from London to Oxford. Cartwright laid 
the plans of the explorers before Charles H. The 
king ordered 40J". a week paid to Radisson and 
Groseillers for the winter. They took chambers 
in London. Later they followed the court to Wind- 
sor, where they were received by King Charles. 

The English court favored the project of trade in 
Hudson Bay, but during the Dutch war nothing 
could be done. The captain of the Dutch ship 
Caper had sent word of the French explorers to 
De Witt, the great statesman. De W^itt despatched a 
spy from Picardy, France, one Eli Godefroy Touret, 
who chanced to know Groseillers, to meet the ex- 
plorers in London. Masking as Groseillers' nephew, 
Touret tried to bribe both men to join the Dutch. 
Failing this, he attempted to undermine their credit 
with the English by accusing Radisson and Groseillers 
of counterfeiting money ; but the English court 
refused to be deceived, and Touret was imprisoned. 



138 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Owing to the plague and the war, two years passed 
without the vague promises of the EngHsh court 
taking shape. Montague, the EngHsh ambassador to 
France, heard of the explorers' feats, and wrote to 
Prince Rupert. Prince Rupert was a soldier of 
fortune, who could enter into the spirit of the ex- 
plorers. He had fought on the losing side against 
Cromwell, and then taken to the high seas to replenish 
broken fortunes by piracy. The wealth of the beaver 
trade appealed to him. He gave all the influence of 
his prestige to the explorers' plans. By the spring of 
1668 money enough had been advanced to fit out 
two boats for Hudson Bay. In the Eagle, with 
Captain Stannard, went Radisson ; in the Nonsuch, with 
Captain Zechariah Gillam of Boston, went Groseillers. 
North of Ireland furious gales drove the ships apart. 
Radisson's vessel was damaged and driven back to 
London; but his year was not wasted. It is likely 
that the account of his first voyages was written while 
Groseillers was away.^ Sometime during his stay in 
London he married Mary Kirke, a daughter of the 
Huguenot John Kirke, whose family had long ago 
gone from Boston and captured Quebec. 

Gillam's journal records that the Nonsuch left 
Gravesend the 3d of June, 1668, reached Resolution 

1 It plainly could not have been written while en route across the Atlantic with Sir 
George Cartwright, for it records events after that time. 



RADISSON CHANGES ALLEGIANCE 139 

Island oil August 4, and came to anchor at the 
south of James Bay on September 29.^ It was 
here that Radisson had come overland five years 
before, when he thought that he discovered a river 
flowing from the direction of the St. Lawrence. The 
river was Nemisco. Groseillers called it Rupert in 
honor of his patron. A palisaded fort was at once 
built, and named King Charles after the English 
monarch. By December, the bay was locked in the 
deathly silence of northern frost. Snow fell till the 
air became darkened day after day, a ceaseless fall of 
muffling snow; the earth — as Gillam's journal savs 
— "seemed frozen to death." Gillam attended to 
the fort, Groseillers to the trade. Dual command was 
bound to cause a clash. By April, 1669, the terrible 
cold had relaxed. The ice swept out of ^he river with 
a roar. Wild fowl came winging north in mvriad 
flocks. By June the fort was sweltering in almost 
tropical heat. The Nonsuch hoisted anchor and sailed 
for England, loaded to the water-line with a cargo of 
furs. Honors awaited Groseillers in London. King 
Charles created him a Knight de la Jarretiere^ an order 
for princes of the royal blood." In addition, he was 
granted a sum of money. Prince Rupert and Radis- 
son had, meanwhile, been busy organizing a fur com- 

' Robson's Hudson Bay. 

2 See Dr. N. E. Dionne ; also Marie de 1' Incarnation ; but Suite discredits this 
granting of a title. 



I40 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

pany. The success of Groseillers' voyage now assured 
this company a royal charter, which was granted in 
May, 1670. Such was the origin of the Hudson's 
Bay Company. Prince Rupert was its first governor; 
Charles Bayly was appointed resident governor on the 
bay. Among the first shareholders were Prince Ru- 
pert, the Duke of York, Sir George Cartwright, the 
Duke of Albermarle, Shaftesbury, Sir Peter Colleton, 
who had advanced Radisson a loan during the long 
period of waiting, and Sir John Kirke, whose daugh- 
ter had married Radisson. 

That spring, Radisson and Groseillers again sailed 
for the bay. In 1671, three ships were sent out from 
England, and Radisson established a second post 
westward at Moose. With Governor Bayly, he sailed 
up and met the Indians at what was to become the 
great fur capital of the north, Port Nelson, or York. 
The third year of the company's existence, Radisson 
and Groseillers perceived a change. Not so many 
Indians came down to the Enghsh forts to trade. 
Those who came brought fewer pelts and demanded 
higher prices. Rivals had been at work. The Eng- 
lish learned that the French had come overland and 
were paying high prices to draw the Indians from the 
bay. In the spring a council was held.^ Should they 

1 See Robson's Hudson Bay, containing reference to the journal kept by Gorst, 
Bayly's secretary, at Rupert Fort. 



RADISSON CHANGES ALLEGIANCE 141 

continue on the east side of tlie bay, or move west, 
where there would be no rivah-y ? Groseillers boldly 
counselled moving inland and driving off French 
competition. Bayly was for moving west. He even 
hinted that Groseillers' advice sprang from disloyalty 
to the English. The clash that was inevitable from 
divided command was this time avoided by compro- 
mise. They would all sail west, and all come back to 
Rupert's River. When they returned, they found 
that the English ensign had been torn down and the 
French flag raised.^ A veteran Jesuit missionary of 
the Saguenay, Charles Albanel, two French companions, 
and some Indian guides had ensconced themselves 
in the empty houses.'^ The priest now presented 
Governor Bayly with letters from Count Frontenac 

1 See State Papers, Canadian Archives, 1676, January 26, Whitehall: Memorial 
of the Hudson Bay Company complaining of Albanel, a Jesuit, attempting to seduce 
Radisson and Groseillers from the company's services ; in absence of ships pulling 
down the British ensign and tampering with the Indians. 

'^ I am inclined to think that Albanel may not have been aware of the documents 
which he carried from Quebec to the traders being practically an offer to bribe Radisson 
and Groseillers to desert England. Some accounts say that Albanel was accompanied by 
Groseillers' son, but I find no authority for this. On the other hand, Albanel does 
not mention the Englishmen being present. Just as Radisson and Groseillers, ten years 
before, had taken possession of the old house battered with bullets, so Albanel took 
possession of the deserted huts. Here is what his account says (Cramoisy edition of the 
Relations) : " Le 28 June a peine avions nous avance un quart de lieue, que nous 
rencontrasmes a main gauche dans un petit ruisseau un heu avec ses agrez de dix ou dou 
tonneaux, qui portoit le Pavilion Anglois ct la voile latine ; dela a la portee du fusil, 
nous entrasmes dans deux maisons desertes . . . nous rencontrasmes deux ou trois 
cabanes et un chien abandunne. . . ." His tampering with the Indians was simply 
the presentation uf gifts to attract them to J2"<^hcc. 



142 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

commending the French to the good offices of Gov- 
ernor Bayly.^ 

France had not been idle. 

When it was too late, the country awakened to the 
injustice done Radisson and Groseillers. While Rad- 
isson was still in Boston, all restrictions were taken 
from the beaver trade, except the tax of one-fourth to 
the revenue. The Jesuit Dablon, who was near the 
western end of Lake Superior, gathered all the infor- 
mation he could from the Indians of the way to the 
Sea of the North. Father Marquette learned of the 
Mississippi from the Indians. The Western tribes 
had been summoned to the Sault, where Sieur de Saint- 
Lusson met them in treaty for the French ; and the 
French flag was raised in the presence of Pere Claude 
Allouez, who blessed the ceremony. M. Colbert sent 
instructions to M. Talon, the intendant of New France, 
to grant titles of nobility to Groseillers' nephew in 
order to keep him in the country.^ On the Saguenay 
was a Jesuit, Charles Albanel, loyal to the French and 
of English birth, whose devotion to the Indians during 
the small-pox scourge of 1670 had given him un- 
bounded influence. Talon, the intendant of New 
France, was keen to retrieve in the North what D'Ar- 

1 See State Papers, Canadian Archives : M. Frontenac, the commander of French (?) 
king's troops at Hudson Bay, introduces and recommends Father Albanel. 

2 State Papers, Canadian Archives. 



RADISSON CHANGES ALLEGIANCE 143 

genson's injustice had lost. Who could be better 
qualified to go overland to Hudson Bay than the old 
missionary, loyal to France, of English birth, and be- 
loved by the Indians? Albanel was summoned to 
Quebec and gladly accepted the commission. He 
chose for companions Saint-Simon and young Cou- 
ture, the son of the famous guide to the Jesuits. The 
company left Quebec on August 6, 1671, and secured 
a guide at Tadoussac. Embarking in canoes, they 
ascended the shadowy caiion of the Saguenay to Lake 
St. John. On the 7th of September they left the 
forest of Lake St. John and mounted the current of 
a winding river, full of cataracts and rapids, toward 
Mistassini. On this stream they met Indians who 
told them that two European vessels were on Hud- 
son Bay. The Indians showed Albanel tobacco 
which they had received from the English. 

It seemed futile to go on a voyage of discovery 
where English were already in possession. The priest 
sent one of the Frenchmen and two Indians back to 
Quebec for passports and instructions. What the 
instructions were can only be guessed bv subsequent 
developments. The messengers left the depth of the 
forest on the 19th of September, and had returned 
from Quebec by the loth of October. Snow was falling. 
The streams had frozen, and the Indians had gone into 
camp for the winter. Going from wigwam to \v\g- 



144 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

warn through the drifted forest, Father Albanel passed 
the winter preaching to the savages. Skins of the 
chase were laid on the wigwams. Against the pelts, 
snow was banked to close up every chink. Inside, 
the air was blue with smoke and the steam of the 
simmering kettle. Indian hunters lay on the moss 
floor round the central fires. Children and dogs 
crouched heterogeneously against the sloping tent 
walls. Squaws plodded through the forest, setting 
traps and baiting the fish-lines that hung through air- 
holes of the thick ice. In these lodges Albanel win- 
tered. He was among strange Indians and suffered 
incredible hardships. Where there was room, he, too, 
sat crouched under the crowded tent walls, scofTed at 
by the braves, teased by the unrebuked children, eat- 
ing when the squaws threw waste food to him, going 
hungry when his French companions failed to bring 
in game. Sometimes night overtook him on the trail. 
Shovelling a bed through the snow to the moss with 
his snow-shoes, piling shrubs as a wind-break, and 
kindling a roaring fire, the priest passed the night 
under the stars. 

When spring came, the Indians opposed his passage 
down the river. A council was called. Albanel ex- 
plained that his message was to bring the Indians 
down to Quebec and keep them from going to the 
English for trade. The Indians, who had acted as 



RADISSON CHANGES ALLEGIANCE 145 

middlemen between Quebec traders and the Northern 
tribes, saw the advantage of undermining the English 
trade. Gifts were presented by the Frenchmen, and 
the friendship of the Indians was secured. On June i, 
1672, sixteen savages embarked with the three French- 
men. For the next ten days, the difficulties were 
almost insurmountable. The river tore through a 
deep gorge of sheer precipices which the voyageurs 
could pass only by clinging to the rock walls with 
hands and feet. One portage was twelve miles long 
over a muskeg of quaking moss that floated on water. 
At every step the travellers plunged through to their 
waists. Over this the long canoes and baggage had to 
be carried. On the loth of June they reached the 
height of land that divides the waters of Hudson 
Bay from the St. Lawrence. The watershed was a 
small plateau with two lakes, one of which emptied 
north, the other, south. As they approached Lake 
Mistassini, the Lake Indians again opposed their free 
passage down the rivers. 

"You must wait," they said, "till we notify the 
elders of your coming." Shortly afterwards, the 
French met a score of canoes with the Indians all 
painted for war. The idea of turning back never 
occurred to the priest. By way of demonstrating his 
joy at meeting the warriors, he had ten volleys of 
musketry fired off, which converted the war into a 



146 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

council of peace. At the assemblage, Albanel dis- 
tributed gifts to the savages. 

" Stop trading with the English at the sea," he 
cried ; " they do not pray to God ; come to Lake St. 
John with your furs ; there you will always find a robe 
noire to instruct you and baptize you." 

The treaty was celebrated by a festival and a dance. 
In the morning, after solemn religious services, the 
French embarked. On the i8th of June they came 
to Lake Mistassini, an enormous body of water similar 
to the Great Lakes.^ From Mistassini, the course was 
down-stream and easier. High water enabled them to 
run many of the rapids ; and on the a 8 th of June, after 
a voyage of eight hundred leagues, four hundred rapids, 
and two hundred waterfalls, they came to the deserted 
houses of the English. The very next day they found 
the Indians and held religious services, making solemn 
treaty, presenting presents, and hoisting the French 
flag. For the first three weeks of July they coasted 
along the shores of James Bay, taking possession of the 
country in the name of the French king. Then they 
cruised back to King Charles Fort on Rupert's River.^ 
They were just in time to meet the returned Englishmen. 

^ For some years there were sensational reports that Mistassini was larger than Lake 
Superior. Mr. Low, of the Canadian Geological Survey, in a very exhaustive report, 
shows this is not so. Still, the lake ranks with the large lakes of America. Mr. Low 
gives its dimensions as one hundred miles long and twelve miles wide. 

2 There is a discrepancy in dates here which I leave savants to worry out. AlhaneV s 



RADISSON CHANGES ALLEGIANCE 147 

Governor Bayly of the Hudson's Bay Company 
was astounded to find the French at Rupert's River. 
Now he knew what had aUured the Indians from the 
bay, but he hardly relished finding foreigners in pos- 
session of his own fort. The situation required deli- 
cate tact. Governor Bayly was a bluff tradesman with 
an insular dislike of Frenchmen and Catholics common 
in England at a time when bigoted fanaticism ran 
riot. King Charles was on friendly terms with France. 
Therefore, the Jesuit's passport must be respected ; so 
Albanel was received with at least a show of courtesy. 
But Bayly was the governor of a fur company ; and 
the rights of the company must be respected. To 
make matters worse, the French voyageurs brought 
letters to Groseillers and Radisson from their relatives 
in Quebec. Bayly, no doubt, wished the Jesuit guest far 
enough. Albanel left in a few weeks. Then Bayly's 
suspicions blazed out in open accusations that the two 
French explorers had been playing a double game and 
acting against English interests. In September came 

Relation (Cramoisy) is of 1672. Thomas Gorst, secretary to Governor Bayly, says 
that the quarrel took place in 1674. Oldmixon, who wrote from hearsay, says in 
1673. Robson, who had access to Hudson's Bay records, savs 1676; and I am 
inclined to think they all agree. In a word, Radisson and Groseillers were on bad 
terms with the local Hudson's Bay Company governor from the first, and the open 
quarrel took place only in 1675. Considering the bigotry of the times, the quarrel was 
only natural. Bayly was governor, but he could not take precedence over Radisson 
and Groseillers. He was Protestant and English. They were Catholics and French. 
Besides, they were really at the English governor's mercy ; for they could not go back 
to Canada until publicly pardoned by the French king. 



148 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

the company ship to the fort with Captain Gillam, who 
had never agreed with Radisson from the time that 
they had quarrelled about going from Port Royal to 
the straits of Hudson Bay. It has been said that, at 
this stage, Radisson and Groseillers, feehng the preju- 
dice too strong against them, deserted and passed 
overland through the forests to Quebec. The records 
of the Hudson's Bay Company do not corroborate this 
report. Bayly in the heat of his wrath sent home 
accusations with the returning ship. The ship that 
came out in 1674 requested Radisson to go to Eng- 
land and report. This he did, and so completely 
refuted the charges of disloyalty that in 1675 the com- 
pany voted him ;^ioo a year; but Radisson would 
not sit quietly in England on a pension. Owing to 
hostility toward him among the English employees of 
the company, he could not go back to the bay. 
Meantime he had wife and family and servants to main- 
tain on X'^^'^ ^ year. If England had no more need 
of him, France realized the fact that she had. Debts 
were accumulating. Restless as a caged tiger, Radis- 
son found himself baffled until a message came from 
the great Colbert of France, offering to pay all his 
debts and give him a position in the French navy. 
His pardon was signed and proclaimed. In 1676, 
France granted him fishing privileges on the island of 
Anticosti ; but thfe lodestar of the fur trade still drew 



RADISSON CHANGES ALLEGIANCE 149 

him, for that year he was called to Quebec to meet a 
company of traders conferring on the price of beaver.' 
In that meeting assembled, among others, Jolliet, La 
Salle, Groseillcrs, and Radisson — men whose names 
were to become immortal. 

It was plain that the two adventurers could not long 
rest." 

^ State Papers, Canadian Archives, October 20, 1676, Quebec: Report of pro- 
ceedings regarding the price of beaver ... by an ordinance, October 19, 1676, 
M. Jacques Duchesneau, Intendant, had called a meeting of the leading fur traders to 
consult about fixing the price of beaver. There were present, among others, Robert, 
Cavelier de la Salle, . . . Charles le Moyne, . . . two Godefroys of Three Rivers, 
. . . Groseillers, . . . Jolliet, . . . Pierre Radisson. 

2 Mr. Low's geological report on Labrador contains interesting particulars of the 
route followed by Father Albanel. He speaks of the gorge and swamps and difficult 
portages in precisely the same way as the priest, though Albanel must have encountered 
the worst possible difficulties on the route, for he went down so early in the spring. 



CHAPTER VI 

1682-1684 

RADISSON GIVES UP A CAREER IN THE NAVY FOR 
THE FUR TRADE 

Though opposed by the Monopolists of Quebec, he secures Ships for a 
Voyage to Hudson Bay — Here he encounters a Pirate Ship from 
Boston and an English Ship of the Hudson's Bay Company — How 
he plays his Cards to win against Both Rivals 

A CLEVER man may be a dangerous rival. Both 
France and England recognized this in Radisson. 
The Hudson's Bay Company distrusted him because 
he was a foreigner. The fur traders of Quebec were 
jealous. The Hudson's Bay Company had offered 
him a pension of ^^ 100 a year to do nothing. France 
had pardoned his secession to England, paid his debts, 
and given him a position in the navy, and when the 
fleet was wrecked returning from the campaign against 
Dutch possessions in the West Indies, the French 
king advanced money for Radisson to refit himself; 
but France distrusted the explorer because he had an 
English wife. All that France and England wanted 
Radisson to do was to keep quiet. "What the haughty 

150 



RADISSON GIVES UP A CAREER 151 

spirit of Radisson would not do for all the fortunes 
which two nations could offer to bribe him — was to 
keep quiet. He cared more for the game than the 
winnings; and the game of sitting still and drawing a 
pension for doing nothing was . 

altogether too tame for Radisson. ^.% l^f ^% 
Groseillers gave up the struggle ^Php l ^^^^ ^jy^ 
and retired for the time to his ^^^^^J^^^^^^^f 
family at Three Rivers. At Que- 'wFW^^^f^^ j^ 
bee, in 1676, Radisson heard of ^^vTB^.^Mrj 
others everywhere reaping where he 0^~"v^^>--_^^^Y^~"^ 
had sown. Jolliet and La Salle -skin for Skin.' Coat of 
were preparing to push the fur Arms and Motto. Hud- 

1 r -vT r- 1 son's Bay Company. 

trade or JNew France westward 
of the Great Lakes, where Radisson had penetrated 
twenty years previously. Fur traders of Quebec, who 
organized under the name of the Company of the 
North, yearly sent their canoes up the Ottawa, St. 
Maurice, and Saguenay to the forests south of Hudson 
Bay, which Radisson had traversed. On the bay 
itself the English company were entrenched. North, 
northwest, and west, Radisson had been the explorer ; 
but the reward of his labor had been snatched by 
other hands. 

Radisson must have served meritoriously on the 
fleet, for after the wreck he was offered the command 
ot a nian-ot-war ; but he asked tor a commission to 



152 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

New France. From this request there arose com- 
plications. His wife's family, the Kirkes, had held 
claims against New France from the days when the 
Kirkes of Boston had captured Quebec. These 
claims now amounted to ^'40,000. M. Colbert, the 
great French statesman, hesitated to give a commission 
to a man aUied by marriage with the enemies of New 
France. Radisson at last learned why preferment had 
been denied him. It was on account of his wife. 
Twice Radisson journeyed to London for Mary 
Kirke. Those were times of an easy change in faith. 
Charles II was playing double with Catholics and 
Protestants. The Kirkes were closely attached to the 
court ; and it was, perhaps, not difficult for the Hugue- 
not wife to abjure Protestantism and declare herself a 
convert to the religion of her husband. But when 
Radisson proposed taking her back to France, that 
was another matter. Sir John Kirke forbade his 
daughter's departure till the claims of the Kirke 
family against New France had been paid. When 
Radisson returned without his wife, he was reproached 
by M. Colbert for disloyalty. The government re- 
fused its patronage to his plans for the fur trade ; but 
M. Colbert sent him to confer with La Chesnaye, a 
prominent fur trader and member of the Council in 
New France, who happened to be in Paris at that time. 
La Chesnaye had been sent out to Canada to look 



RADISSON GIVES UP A CAREER 153 

after the affiiirs of a Rouen fur-trading company. Soon 
he became a commissioner of the West Indies Com- 
pany ; and when the merchants of Quebec organized 
the Company of the North, La Chesnaye became a 
director. No one knew better than he how bitterly 
the monopoHsts of Quebec would oppose Radisson's 
plans for a trip to Hudson Bay; but the prospects 
were alluring. La Chesnaye was deeply involved in 
the fur trade and snatched at the chance of profits to 
stave off the bankruptcy that reduced him to beggary 
a few years later. In defiance of the rival companies 
and independent of those with which he was connected, 
he offered to furnish ships and share profits with Rad- 
isson and Groseillers for a voyage to Hudson Bay. 

M. Colbert did not give his patronage to the 
scheme ; but he wished Radisson a God-speed. The 
Jesuits advanced Radisson money to pay his passage ; 
and in the fall of 1681, he arrived in Quebec. La 
Chesnaye met him, and Groseillers was summoned. 
The three then went to the Chateau Saint-Louis to 
lay their plans before the governor. Though the 
privileges of the West Indies Company had been cur- 
tailed, the fur trade was again regulated by license.^ 

^ Within ten years so many different regulations were promulgated on the fiir trade 
that it is almost impossible to keep track of them. In 1673 orders came from Paris 
forbidding French settlers of New France from wandering in the woods for longer than 
twenty-four hours. In 1672 M. Frontenac forbade the selling of merchandise to 
courcun Ju hois, or the purchase of furs from them. In 1675 a decree of the Council 



154 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Frontenac had granted a license to the Company of 
the North for the fur trade of Hudson Bay. He 
could not openly favor Radisson ; but he winked at 
the expedition by granting passports to the explorers, 
and the three men who were to accompany him, Jean 
Baptiste, son of Groseillers, Pierre Allemand, the pilot 
who was afterward given a commission to explore the 
Eskimo country, and Jean Godefroy, an interpreter.^ 
Jean Baptiste, Radisson's nephew, invested J^S^^ ^^ 
goods for barter. Others of Three Rivers and Quebec 
advanced money to provision the ship.^ Ten days 
after Radisson's arrival in Quebec, the explorers had 
left the high fortress of the St. Lawrence to winter in 
Acadia. When spring came, they went with the 
fishing fleets to Isle Percee, where La Chesnaye 
was to send the ships. Radisson's ship, the St. Pierre, 

of State awarded to M. Jean Oudiette one-fourth of all beaver, with the exclusive right 
of buying and selling in Canada. In 1676 Frontenac withdrew from the Cie Itides Occi- 
dentales all the rights it had over Canada and other places. An ordinance of October i, 
1682, forbade all trade except under license. An ordinance in 1684 ordered all fur 
traders trading in Hudson Bay to pay one-fourth to Farmers of the Revenue. 

1 It is hard to tell who this Godefroy was. Of all the famous Godefroys of Three 
Rivers (according to Abbe Tanguay) there was only one, Jean Batiste, born 1658, 
who might have gone with Radisson ; but I hardly think so. The Godefroys descended 
from the French nobility and themselves bore titles from the king, but in spite of this, 
were the best canoemen of New France, as ready — according to Mr. Suite — to faire 
la cuisine as to command a fort. Radisson's Godefroy evidently went in the capacity 
of a servant, for his name is not mentioned in the official list of promoters. On the 
other hand, parish records do not give the date of Jean Batiste Godefroy' s death ; so 
that he may have gone as a servant and died in the North. 

2 State Papers, 1683, state that Dame Sorel, La Chesnaye, Chaujon, Gitton, 
Foret, and others advanced money for the goods. 



RADISSON GIVES UP A CAREER 155 

— named after himself, — came first, a rickety sloop of 
fifty tons with a crew of twelve mutinous, ill-fed men, 
a cargo of goods tor barter, and scant enough supply 
of provisions. Groseillers' ship, the St. AnnCy was 
smaller and better built, with a crew of fifteen. The 
explorers set sail on the iith of July. From the first 
there was trouble with the crews. Fresh-water 
voyageurs make bad ocean sailors. Food was short. 
The voyage was to be long. It was to unknown 
waters, famous for disaster. The sea was boisterous. 
In the months of June and July, the North Atlantic 
is beset with fog and iceberg. The ice sweeps south 
in mountainous bergs that have thawed and split before 
thev reach the temperate zones.' On the 30th of 
July the two ships passed the Straits of Belle Isle. 
Fog-banks hung heavy on the blue of the far watery 
horizon. Out of the fog, like ghosts in gloom, drifted 
the shadowy ice-floes. The coast of Labrador con- 
sists of bare, domed, lonely hills alternated with rock 
walls rising sheer from the sea as some giant masonry. 
Here the rock is buttressed by a sharp angle knife- 
edged in a precipice. There, the beetling walls are 
guarded by long reefs like the teeth of a saw. Over 
these reefs, the drifting tide breaks with multitudinous 

1 In 1898, when up the coast of Labrador, 1 was told by the superintendent of a 
northern whaling station — a man who has received royal decorations for his scientific 
research of ocean phenomena — that he has frequently seen icebergs off Labrador that 
were nine miles long. 



156 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

voices. The French voyageurs had never known such 
seafaring. In the wail of the white-foamed reefs, 
their superstition heard the shriek of the demons. 
The explorers had anchored in one of the sheltered 
harbors, which the sailors call " holes-in-the-wall." 
The crews mutinied. They would go no farther 
through ice-drift and fog to an unknown sea. Radis- 
son never waited for the contagion of fear to work. 
He ordered anchors up and headed for open sea. 
Then he tried to encourage the sailors with promises. 
They would not hear him ; for the ship's galley was 
nearly empty of food. Then Radisson threatened the 
first mutineer to show rebellion with such severe pun- 
ishment as the hard customs of the age permitted. 
The crew sulked, biding its time. At that moment 
the lookout shouted " Sail ho ! " 

All hands discerned a ship with a strange sail, such 
as Dutch and Spanish pirates carried, bearing down 
upon them shoreward. The lesser fear was forgotten 
in the greater. The St. Pierre's crew crowded sail. 
Heading about, the two explorers' ships threaded the 
rock reefs like pursued deer. The pirate came on full 
speed before the wind. Night fell while Radisson was 
still hiding among the rocks. Notwithstanding reefs 
and high seas, while the pirate ship hove to for the 
night, Radisson stole out in the dark and gave his 
pursuer the slip. The chase had saved him a mutiny. 



RADISSON GIVES UP A CAREER 157 

As the vessels drove northward, the ice drifted past 
like a white world afloat. When Radisson approached 
the entrance to Hudson Bay, he met floes in impene- 
trable masses. So far the ships had avoided delay by 
tacking along the edges of the ice-fields, from lake to 
lake of ocean surrounded by ice. Now the ice began 
to crush together, driven by wind and tide with furious 
enough force to snap the two ships like egg-shells. 
Radisson watched for a free passage, and, with a wind to 
rear, scudded for shelter of a hole-in-the-wall. Here 
he met the Eskimo, and provisions were replenished ; 
but the dangers of the ice-fields had frightened the 
crews again. In two days Radisson put to sea to avoid 
a second mutiny. The wind was landward, driving the 
ice back from the straits, and they passed safely into 
Hudson Bay. The ice again surrounded them ; but 
it was useless for the men to mutiny. Ice blocked 
up all retreat. Jammed among the floes, Groseillers 
was afraid to carry sail, and fell behind. Radisson 
drove ahead, now skirting the ice-floes, now pounded 
by breaking icebergs, now crashing into surface brash 
or puddled ice to the fore. " We were like to have 
perished," he writes, " but God was pleased to pre- 
serve us." 

On the 26th of August, six weeks after sailing from 
Isle Percee, Radisson rode triumphantlv in on the 
tide to Hayes River, south of Nelson River, where 



158 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

he had been with the English ships ten years before. 
Two weeks later the Ste. Anne, with Groseillers, 
arrived. The two ships cautiously ascended the river, 
seeking a harbor. Fifteen miles from salt water, 
Radisson anchored. At last he was back in his 
native element, the wilderness, where man must set 
himself to conquer and take dominion over earth. 

Groseillers was always the trader, Radisson the 
explorer. Leaving his brother-in-law to build the 
fort, Radisson launched a canoe on Hayes River to 
explore inland. Young Jean Groseillers accompanied 
him to look after the trade with the Indians.^ For 
eight days they paddled up a river that was destined 
to be the path of countless traders and pioneers for 
two centuries, and that may yet be destined to become 
the path of a northern commerce. By September the 
floodtide of Hayes River had subsided. In a week 
the voyageurs had travelled probably three hundred 
miles, and were within the region of Lake Winnipeg, 
where the Cree hunters assemble in October for the 
winter. Radisson had come to this region by way 
of Lake Superior with the Cree hunters twenty years 
before, and his visit had become a tradition among 
the tribes, Beaver are busy in October gnawing down 
young saplings for winter food. Radisson observed 
chips floating past the canoe. Where there are beaver, 

1 Jean was born in 1654 and was, therefore, twenty-eight. 



RADISSON GIVES UP A CAREER 159 

there should be Indians; so the voyageurs paddled 
on. One night, as they lay round the camp-fire, 
with canoes overturned, a deer, startled from its 
evening drinking-place, bounded from the thicket. A 
sharp whistle — and an Indian ran from the brush of 
an island opposite the camp, signalling the white men 
to head the deer back ; but when Radisson called from 
the waterside, the savage took fright and dashed for 
the woods. 

All that night the voyageurs kept sleepless guard. 
In the morning they moved to the island and kindled 
a signal-fire to call the Indians. In a little while 
canoes cautiously skirted the island, and the chief of 
the band stood up, bow and arrow in hand. Pointing 
his arrows to the deities of north, south, east, and west, 
he broke the shatt to splinters, as a signal of peace, and 
chanted his welcome : — 

** Ho, young men, be not afraid ! 
The sun is favorable to us ! 
Our enemies shall fear us ! 
This is the man we have wished 
Since the days of our fathers !" 

With a leap, the chief sprang into the water and 
swam ashore, followed by all the canoes. Radisson 
called out to know who was commander. The chief, 
with a sign as old and universal as humanity, bowed 
his head in servility. Radisson took the Indian by 



i6o PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

the hand, and, seating him by the fire, chanted an 
answer in Cree : — 

*' I know all the earth ! 

Your friends shall be my friends ! 

I come to bring you arms to destroy your enemies ! 

Nor wife nor child shall die of hunger ! 

For I have brought you merchandise ! 

Be of good cheer ! 

I will be thy son ! 

I have brought thee a father ! 

He is yonder below building a fort 

Where I have two great ships ! " ^ 

The chief kept pace with the profuse compliments 
by vowing the life of his tribe in service of the 
white man, Radisson presented pipes and tobacco to 
the Indians. For the chief he reserved a fowling- 
piece with powder and shot. White man and Indian 
then exchanged blankets. Presents were sent for the 
absent wives. The savages were so grateful that they 
cast all their furs at Radisson's feet, and promised to 
bring their hunt to the fort in spring. In Paris and 
London Radisson had been harassed by jealousy. In 

1 I have written both addresses as the Indians would chant them. To be sure, they 
will not scan according to the elephantine grace of the pedant's iambics ; but then, 
neither will the Indian songs scan, though I know of nothing more subtly rhythmical. 
Rhythm is so much a part of the Indian that it is in his walk, in the intonation of his 
words, in the gesture of his hands. I think most Westerners will bear me out in 
saying that it is the exquisitely musical intonation of words that betrays Indian blood to 
the third and fourth generation. 



RADISSON GIVES UP A CAREER i6i 

the wilderness he was master of circumstance ; but a 
surprise awaited him at Groseillers' fort. 

The French habitation — called Fort Bourbon — 
had been built on the north shore of Hayes or 
Ste. Therese River. Directly north, overland, was 
another broad river with a gulflike entrance. This 
was the Nelson. Between the two rivers ran a nar- 
row neck of swampy, bush-grown land. The day that 
Radisson returned to the newly erected fort, there 
rolled across the marshes the ominous echo of can- 
non-firing. Who could the newcomers be ? A week's 
sail south at the head of the bay were the English 
establishments of the Hudson's Bay Company. The 
season was far advanced. Had English ships come to 
winter on Nelson River? Ordering Jean Groseillers 
to go back inland to the Indians, Radisson launched 
down Hayes River in search of the strange ship. He 
went to the salt water, but saw nothing. Upon return- 
ing, he found that Jean Groseillers had come back to 
the fort with news of more cannonading farther inland. 
Radisson rightly guessed that the ship had sailed up 
Nelson River, firing cannon as she went to notify 
Indians for trade. Picking out three intrepid men, 
Radisson crossed the marsh by a creek which the 
Indian canoes used, to go to Nelson River.^ Through 
the brush the scout spied a white tent on an island. 

1 See Robson's map. 
M 



i62 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

All night the Frenchmen lay in the woods, watching 
their rivals and hoping that some workman might 
pass close enough to be seized and questioned. At 
noon, next day, Radisson's patience was exhausted. 
He paddled round the island, and showed himself a 
cannon-shot distant from the fort. Holding up a 
pole, Radisson waved as if he were an Indian afraid 
to approach closer in order to trade. The others 
hallooed a welcome and gabbled out Indian words 
from a guide-book. Radisson paddled a length closer. 
The others ran eagerly down to the water side away 
from their cannon. In signal of friendship, they 
advanced unarmed. Radisson must have laughed to 
see how well his ruse worked. 

" Who are you ? " he demanded in plain English, 
"and what do you want?" The traders called back 
that they were Englishmen come for beaver. Again 
the crafty Frenchman must have laughed ; for he 
knew very well that all English ships except those 
of the Hudson's Bay Company were prohibited by law 
from coming here to trade. ^ Though the strange ship 
displayed an English ensign, the flag did not show the 
magical letters " H. B. C." 

" Whose commission have you ? " pursued Radis- 
son. 

1 State Papers: "The Governor of New England is ordered to seize all vessels 
trading in Hudson Bay contrary to charter — " 



RADISSON GIVES UP A CAREER 163 

" No commission — New Englanders," answered the 
others. 

" Contrabands," thought Radisson to himself. 
Then he announced that he had taken possession of 
all that country for France, had built a strong fort, 
and expected more ships. In a word, he advised the 
New Englanders to save themselves by instant flight; 
but his canoe had glided nearer. To Radisson's sur- 
prise, he discovered that the leader of the New Eng- 






Hudson's Bay Company Coins, made of Lead melted from Tea Chests 
at York Factory, each Coin representing so many Beaver Skins. 

land poachers was Ben Gillam of Boston, son of 
Captain Gillam, the trusted servant of the Hudson's 
Bay Companv, who had opposed Radisson and Gro- 
seillers on Rupert's River. It looked as if the con- 
traband mitrht be a venture of the father as well as 
the son.' Radisson and voung Gillam recognized 
each other with a show of friendliness, Gillam inviting 
Radisson to inspect the ship with much the same 
motive that the fabled spider invited the fly. Radis- 

1 Radiaon'i yournat, p. Z77. 



164 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

son took tactful precaution for his own liberty by 
graciously asking that two of the New England ser- 
vants go down to the canoe with the three French- 
men. No sooner had Radisson gone on the New 
England ship than young Gillam ordered cannon 
fired and English flags run up. Having made that 
brave show of strength, the young man proposed 
that the French and the New Englanders should 
divide the traffic between them for the winter. Radis- 
son diplomatically suggested that such an important 
proposal be laid before his colleagues. In leaving, 
he advised Gillam to keep his men from wandering 
beyond the island, lest they suffer wrong at the 
hands of the French soldiers. Incidentally, that 
advice would also keep the New Englanders from 
learning how desperately weak the French really 
were. Neither leader was in the slightest deceived 
by the other ; each played for time to take the 
other unawares, and each knew the game that was 
being played. 

Instead of returning by the creek that cut athwart 
the neck of land between the two rivers, Radisson 
decided to go down Nelson River to the bay, round 
the point, and ascend Hayes River to the French 
quarters. Cogitating how to frighten young Gillam 
out of the country or else to seize him, Radisson 
glided down the swift current of Nelson River 



RADISSON GIVES UP A CAREER 165 

toward salt water. He had not gone nine miles 
from the New Englanders when he was astounded 
by the spectacle of a ship breasting with full-blown 
sails up the tide of the Nelson directly in front of 
the French canoe. The French dashed for the hiding 
of the brushwood on shore. From their concealment 
they saw that the ship was a Hudson's Bay Company 
vessel, armed with cannon and commission for lawful 
trade. If once the Hudson's Bay Company ship and 
the New Englanders united, the English would be 
strong enough to overpower the French. 

The majority of leaders would have escaped the 
impending disaster by taking ingloriously to their 
heels. Radisson, with that adroit presence of mind 
which characterized his entire life, had provided for 
his followers' safety by landing theni on the south 
shore, where the French could flee across the marsh 
to the ships if pursued. Then his only thought was 
how to keep the rivals apart. Instantly he had an 
enormous bonfire kindled. Then he posted his 
followers in ambush. The ship mistook the fire for 
an Indian signal, reefed its sails, and anchored. Usu- 
ally natives paddled out to the traders' ships to barter. 
These Indians kept in hiding. The ship waited for 
them to come; and Radisson waited for the ship's 
hands to land. In the morning a gig boat was 
lowered to row ashore. In it were Captain Gillam, 



i66 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Radisson's personal enemy, John Bridgar,^ the new 
governor of the Hudson's Bay Company for Nelson 
River, and six sailors. All were heavily armed, yet 
Radisson stood alone to receive them, with his three 
companions posted on the outskirts of the woods as 
if in command of ambushed forces. Fortune is said 
to favor the dauntless, and just as the boat came 
within gunshot of the shore, it ran aground. A 
sailor jumped out to drag the craft up the bank. 
They were all at Radisson's mercy — without cover. 
He at once levelled his gun with a shout of " Halt ! " 
At the same moment his own men made as if to sally 
from the woods. The English imagined themselves 
ambushed, and called out that they were the officers 
of the Hudson's Bay Company. Radisson declared 
who he was and that he had taken possession of the 
country for France. His musket was still levelled. 
His men were ready to dash forward. The English 
put their heads together and decided that discretion 
was the better part of valor. Governor Bridgar 
meekly requested permission to land and salute the 
commander of the French. Then followed a pom- 
pous melodrama of bravado, each side affecting sham 
strength. Radisson told the English all that he had 
told the New Englanders, going on board the Com- 
pany's ship to dine, while English hostages remained 

1 Robson gives the commission to this governor. 



RADISSON GIVES UP A CAREER 167 

with his French followers. For reasons which he did 
not reveal, he strongly advised Governor Bridgar not 
to go farther up Nelson River. Above all, he warned 
Captain Gillam not to permit the English sailors to 
wander inland. Having exchanged compliments, 
Radisson took gracious leave ot his hosts, and with 
his three men slipped down the Nelson in their 
canoe. Past a bend in the river, he ordered the 
canoe ashore. The French then skirted back through 
the woods and lay watching the English till satisfied 
that the Hudson's Bay Company ship would go no 
nearer the island where Ben Gillam lay hidden. 

Groseillers and his son looked after the trade that 
winter. Radisson had his hands full keeping the two 
English crews apart. Ten days after his return, he 
again left Haves River to see what his rivals were 
doing, l^he Hudson's Bay Company ship had gone 
aground in the ooze a mile from the fort where Gov- 
ernor Bridgar had taken up quarters. That division of 
forces weakened the English fort. Introducing his 
man as captain of a French ship, Radisson entered the 
governor's house. The visitors drained a health to 
their host and fired off muskets to learn whether senti- 
nels were on guard. No attention was paid to the 
unwonted noise. " I judged," writes Radisson, " that 
they were careless, and might easily be surprised." 
He then went across to the river flats, where the tide 



i68 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

had left the vessel, and, calmly mounting the ladder, 
took a survey of Gillam's ship. When the irate old 
captain rushed up to know the meaning of the 
intrusion Radisson suavely proffered provisions, of 
which they were plainly in need. 

The New Englanders had been more industrious. 
A stoutly palisaded fort had been completed on young 
Gillam's island, and cannon commanded all approach. 
Radisson fired a musket to notify the sentry, and took 
care to beach his canoe below the range of the guns. 
Young Gillam showed a less civil front than before. 
His lieutenant ironically congratulated Radisson on 
his " safe " return, and invited him to visit the fort if 
he would enter alone. When Radisson would have 
introduced his four followers, the lieutenant swore " if 
the four French were forty devils, they could not take 
the New Englanders' fort." The safety of the French 
habitation now hung by a hair. Everything depended 
on keeping the two English companies apart, and 
they were distant only nine miles. The scheme must 
have flashed on Radisson in an intuition ; for he laid 
his plans as he listened to the boastings of the 
New Englanders. If father and son could be brought 
together through Radisson's favor. Captain Gillam 
would keep the English from coming to the New 
England fort lest his son should be seized for poach- 
ing on the trade of the Company ; and Ben Gillam 



RADISSON GIVES UP A CAREER 169 

would keep his men from going near the KngHsh fort 
lest Governor Bridgar should learn of the contraband 
ship from Boston. Incidentally, both sides would be 
prevented from knowing the weakness of the French 
at Fort Bourbon. At once Radisson told young 
Gillam of his father's presence. Ben was eager to see 
his father and, as he thought, secure himself from 
detection in illegal trade. Radisson was to return 
to the old captain with the promised provisions. 
He offered to take young Gillam, disguised as a 
bush-ranger. In return, he demanded (i) that the 
New Englanders should not leave their fort ; (2) that 
they should not betray themselves by discharging can- 
non ; (3) that they shoot any Hudson's Bay Company 
people who tried to enter the New England fort. To 
young Gillam these terms seemed designed for his 
own protection. What they really accomplished was 
the complete protection of the French from united 
attack. Father and son would have put themselves 
in Radisson's power. A word of betrayal to Bridgar, 
the Hudson's Bay governor, and both the Gillams 
would be arrested for illegal trade. Ben Gillam's 
visit to his father was fraught with all the danger that 
Radisson's daring could have desired. A seaman half 
suspected the identity of the bush-ranger, and Gov- 
ernor Bridgar wanted to know how Radisson had re- 
turned so soon when the French fort was far away. 



lyo PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

" I told him, smiling," writes Radisson, " that I could 
fly when there was need to serve my friends." 

Young Gillam had begun to suspect the weakness 
of the French, When the two were safely out of the 
Hudson's Bay Company fort, he ofi-'ered to go home 
part of the way with Radisson. This was to learn 
where the French fort lay. Radisson declined the 
kindly service and deliberately set out from the New 
Englanders' island in the wrong direction, coming 
down the Nelson past young Gillam's fort at night. 
The delay of the trick nearly cost Radisson his life. 
Fall rains had set in, and the river was running a mill- 
race. Great floes of ice from the North were tossing 
on the bay at the mouth of the Nelson River in a 
maelstrom of tide and wind. In the dark Radisson 
did not see how swiftly his canoe had been carried 
down-stream. Before he knew it his boat shot out 
of the river among the tossing ice-floes of the bay. 
Surrounded by ice in a wild sea, he could not get back 
to land. The spray drove over the canoe till the 
Frenchman's clothes were stifle with ice. For four 
hours they lay jammed in the ice-drift till a sudden 
upheaval crushed the canoe to kindling wood and left 
the men stranded on the ice. Running from floe to 
floe, they gained the shore and beat their way for 
three days through a raging hurricane of sleet and 
snow toward the French habitation. They were on 



RADISSON GIVES UP A CAREER 171 

the side of the Hayes opposite the French fort. Four 
voyageurs crossed for them, and the Httle company at 
last gained the shelter ot a roof. 

Radisson now knew that young Gillam intended to 
spy upon the French; so he sent scouts to watch the 
New Englanders' fort. The scouts reported that the 
young captain had sent messengers to obtain additional 
men from his father ; but the New England soldiers, 
remembering Radisson's orders to shoot any one 
approaching, had levelled muskets to fire at the reen- 
forcements. The rebuffed men had gone back to 
Governor Bridgar with word of a fort and ship only 
nine miles up Nelson River. Bridgar thought 
this was the French establishment, and old Captain 
Gillam could not undeceive him. The Hudson's Bay 
Company governor had sent the two men back to spy 
on what he thought was a French fort. At once 
Radisson sent out men to capture Bridgar's scouts, 
who were found half dead with cold and hunger. The 
captives reported to Radisson that the English ship 
had been totally wrecked in the ice jam. Bridgar's 
people were starving. Many traders would have left 
their rivals to perish. Radisson supplied them with 
food for the winter. They were no longer to be 
feared; but there was still danger from young Gillam. 
He had wished to \'isit the French fort, Radisson 
decided to give him an opportunity. Ben Gillam was 



172 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

escorted down to Hayes River. A month passed 
quietly. The young captain had learned that the 
boasted forces of the French consisted of less than 
thirty men. His insolence knew no bounds. He 
struck a French servant, called Radisson a pirate, and 
gathering up his belongings prepared to go home. 
Radisson quietly barred the young man's way. 

"You pitiful dog !" said the Frenchman, coolly. 
" You poor young fool ! Why do you suppose you 
were brought to this fort? We brought you here be- 
cause it suited us ! We keep you here as long as it 
suits us ! We take you back when it suits us ! " 

Ben Gillam was dumfounded to find that he had 
been trapped, when he had all the while thought that 
he was acting the part of a clever spy. He broke out 
in a storm of abuse. Radisson remanded the foolish 
young man to a French guard. At the mess-room 
table Radisson addressed his prisoner : — 

" Gillam, to-day I set out to capture your fort." 

At the table sat less than thirty men. Young 
Gillam gave one scornful glance at the French faces 
and laughed. 

"If you had a hundred men instead of twenty," 
he jeered. 

" How many have you, Ben ? " 

" Nine ; and they'll kill you before you reach the 
palisades." 



RADISSON GIVES UP A CAREER 173 

Radisson was not talking of killing. 

" Gillam," he returned imperturbably, " pick out 
nine of my men, and 1 have your fort within forty- 
eight hours." 

Gillam chose the company, and Radisson took one 
of the Hudson Bay captives as a witness. The thing 
was done as easily as a piece of farcical comedy. 
French hostages had been left among the New Eng- 
landers as guarantee of Gillam's safety in Radisson's 
fort. These hostages had been instructed to drop, as 
if by chance, blocks of wood across the doors of the 
guard-room and powder house and barracks. Even 
these precautions proved unnecessary. Two of Radis- 
son's advance guard, who were met by the lieutenant 
of the New England fort, reported that " Gillam 
had remained behind." The lieutenant led the two 
Frenchmen into the fort. These two kept the gates 
open for Radisson, who marched in with his band, 
unopposed. The keys were delivered and Radisson 
was in possession. At midnight the watch-dogs raised 
an alarm, and the French sallied out to find that a 
New Englander had run to the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany for aid, and Governor Bridgar's men were 
attacking the ships. All of the assailants fled but 
four, whom Radisson caught ransacking the ship's 
cabin. Radisson now had more captives than he 
could guard, so he loaded the Hudson's Bay Com- 



174 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

pany men with provisions and sent them back to 
their own starving fort. 

Radisson left the New England fort in charge of 
his Frenchmen and returned to the French quarters. 
Strange news was carried to him there. Bridgar had 
forgotten all benefits, waited until Radisson's back was 
turned, and, with one last desperate cast of the die to 
retrieve all by capturing the New England fort and 
ship for the fur company, had marched against young 
Gillam's island. The French threw open the gates 
for the Hudson's Bay governor to enter. Then they 
turned the key and told Governor Bridgar that he was 
a prisoner. Their coup was a complete triumph for 
Radisson. Both of his rivals were prisoners, and the 
French flag flew undisputed over Port Nelson. 

Spring brought the Indians down to the bay with 
the winter's hunt. The sight of threescore English- 
men captured by twenty Frenchmen roused the war 
spirit of the young braves. They ofi^ered Radisson 
two hundred beaver skins to be allowed to massacre 
the English. Radisson thanked the savages for their 
good will, but declined their offer. Floods had dam- 
aged the water-rotted timbers of the two old hulls in 
which the explorers voyaged north. It was agreed to 
return to Quebec in Ben Gillam's boat, A vessel was 
constructed on one of the hulls to send the English 
prisoners to the Hudson's Bay Company forts at the 



RADISSON GIVES UP A CAREKR 175 

south end of the bay.^ Young Jean Groseillers was 
left, with seven men, to hold the French post till boats 
came in the following year. On the 27th of July 
the ships weighed anchor for the homeward voyage. 
Young Gillam was given a free passage by way of 
(Quebec. Bridgar was to have gone with his men to 
the Hudson's Bay Company forts at the south of the 
bay, but at the last moment a friendly Englishman 
warned Radisson that the governor's design was to 
wait till the large ship had left, head the bark back for 
Hayes River, capture the fort, and put the French- 
men to the sword. To prevent this Bridgar, too, was 
carried to Quebec. Twenty miles out the ship was 
caught in ice-floes that held her for a month, 
and Bridgar again conspired to cut the throats of the 
Frenchmen. Henceforth young Gillam and Bridgar 
were out on parole during the day and kept under 
lock at night. 

The same jealousy as of old awaited Radisson at 
Quebec. The Company of the North was furious 
that La Chesnaye had sent ships to Hudson Bay, 
which the shareholders considered to be their territory 
by license."- Farmers of the Revenue beset the ship 

' Later in Hudson Bay history, when another commander captured the forts, the 
prisoners were sold into slavery. Radisson's treatment of his rivals hardly substantiates 
all the accusations of rascality trumped up against him. Just how many prisoners he 
took in this coup, no two records agree. 

2 Archives, September 24, 1683: Ordinance of M. dc .McuUcs regarding the 



176 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

to seize the cargo, because the explorers had gone 
North without a permit. La Chesnaye saved some of 
the furs by transshipping them for France before the 
vessel reached Quebec. Then followed an intermi- 
nable lawsuit, that exhausted the profits of the voyage. 
La Barre had succeeded Frontenac as governor. The 
best friends of La Barre would scarcely deny that his 
sole ambition as governor was to amass a fortune from 
the fur trade of Canada. Inspired by the jealous 
Company of the North, he refused to grant Radisson 
prize money for the capture of the contraband ship, 
restored the vessel to Gillam, and gave him clearance 
to sail for Boston.^ For this La Barre was sharply 
reprimanded from France ; but the reprimand did 
not mend the broken fortunes of the two explorers, 
who had given their lives for the extension of the 
French domain.' M. Colbert summoned Radisson 

claims of persons interested in the expedition to Hudson Bay, organized by M. de la 
Chesnaye, Gitton, Bruneau, Mme. Sorel. ... In order to avoid difficulties with the 
Company of the North, they had placed a vessel at Isle Percee to receive the furs brought 
back . . . and convey them to HoUand and Spain. . . . Joachims de Chalons, agent 
of the Company of the North, sent a bateau to Percee to defeat the project. De la 
Chesnaye, summoned to appear before the intendant, maintained that the company had 
no right to this trade, . . . that the enterprise involved so many risks that he could 
not consent to divide the profits, if he had any. The partners having been heard, 
M. de Meulles orders that the boats from Hudson Bay be anchored at Quebec. 

1 Archives, October 25, 1683 : M. de la Barre grants Benjamin Gillam of Boston 
clearance for the ship Le Gar^on, now in port at Quebec, although he had no license 
from his Britannic Majesty permitting him to enter Hudson Bay. 

- Such foundationless accusations have been written against Radisson by historians 
who ought to have known better, about these furs, that I quote the final orders of the 



RADISSON GIVES UP A CAREER 177 

and Groseillers to return to France and give an 
account of all they had done ; but when they arrived 
in Paris, on January 15, 1684, ^^^7 learned that the 
great statesman had died. Lord Preston, the English 
envoy, had lodged such complaints against them for 
the defeat of the Englishmen in Hudson Bay, that 
France hesitated to extend public recognition of their 
services. 

government on the subject : November 5, 1683, M. de la Barre forbids Chalons, agent 
of La Ferme du Canada, confiscating the furs brought from Hudson Bay ; November 8 
M. de la Chesnaye is to be paid for the furs seized. 



CHAPTER VII 

1684-1710 

THE LAST VOYAGE OF RADISSON TO HUDSON 

BAY 

France refuses to restore the Confiscated Furs and Radisson tries to 
redeem his Fortune — Reengaged by England, he captures back 
Fort Nelson, but comes to Want in his Old Age — his Character 

Radisson was now near his fiftieth year. He had 
spent his entire Hfe exploring the wilds. He had 
saved New France from bankruptcy with cargoes of 
furs that in four years amounted to half a million of 
modern money. In ten years he had brought half 
a million dollars worth of furs to the English com- 
pany.^ Yet he was a poor man, threatened with 
the sponging-house by clamorous creditors and in the 
power of avaricious statesmen, who used him as a tool 
for their own schemes. La Chesnaye had saved his 
furs ; but the half of the cargo that was the share of 
Radisson and Groseillers had been seized at Quebec.^ 

1 Radisson's petition to the Hudson's Bay Company gives these amounts. 

2 See State Papers quoted in Chapter VI. I need scarcely add that Radisson did 
not steal a march on his patrons by secretly shipping furs to Europe. This is only 
another of the innumerable slanders against Radisson which State Papers disprove. 

178 



LAST VOYAGE OF RADISSON 179 

On arriving in France, Groseillers presented a memorial 
of their wrong to the court.' Probably because Eng- 
land and France were allied by treaty at that time, 
the petition tor redress was ignored. Groseillers 
was now an old man. Me left the struggle to 
Radisson and retired to spend his days in quietness." 
Radisson did not cease to press his claim for the 
return of confiscated furs. He had a wife and four 



1 It seems impossible that historians with the slightest regard for truth should have 
branded this part of RaJisson''s Relation as a fibrication, too. Yet such is the case, and 
of writers whose books are supposed to be reputable. Since prts of Radisson's life ap- 
peared in the magazines, among many letters I received one from a well-known historian 
which to put it mildly was furious at the acceptance of Radhsori' s Journal as authen- 
tic. In reply, I asked that historian how many documents contemporaneous with 
Radisson's life he had consulted before he branded so great an explorer as Radisson as a 
liar. Needless to say, that question was not answered. In corroboration of this part 
of Radisson's life, 1 have lying before me: (i) Chouart's letters — see Appendix. 
(2) A letter of Frontenac recording Radisson's first trip by boat for De la Chesnaye 
and the complications it would be likely to cause. (3) A complete official account 
sent from Quebec to France of Radisson's doings in the bay, which tallies in every 
respect with Radisson's Journal. (4) Report of M. de Meulles to the Minister on 
the whole affair with the English and New Englanders. (5) An official report on the 
release of Gillam's boat at Quebec. (6) The memorial presented by Groseillers to the 
French minister. (7) An official statement of the first discovery of the bay overland. 
(8) A complete statement (official) of the complications created by Radisson's wife 
being English. (9) A statement through a third party — presumably an official — by 
Radisson himself of these complications dated 1683. (10) A letter from the king to 
the governor at Quebec retailing the English complaints of Radisson at Nelson River. 

In the fiice of this, what is to be said of the historian who calls Radisson's adventures 
"a fibrication" ? Such misrepresentation betrays about equal amounts of impudence 
and ignorance. 

- From Charlevoix to modern writers mention is made of the death of these two 
explorers. Different names are given as the places where they died. This is all pure 
supposition. Therefore I do not quote. No records exist to prove where Radisson and 
Groseillers died. 



i8o PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

children to support ; but, in spite of all his services 
to England and France, he did not own a shiUing's 
worth of property in the whole world. From Jan- 
uary to May he waited for the tardy justice of the 
French court. When his suit became too urgent, he 
was told that he had offended the Most Christian 
King by attacking the fur posts under the protection 
of a friendly monarch. King Charles. The hollow- 
ness of that excuse became apparent when the French 
government sanctioned the fitting out of two vessels 
for Radisson to go to Hudson Bay in the spring. 
Lord Preston, the English ambassador, was also play- 
ing a double game. He never ceased to reproach 
the French for the destruction of the fur posts on 
Hudson Bay. At the same time he besieged Radis- 
son with offers to return to the service of the Hudson's 
Bay Company. 

Radisson was deadly tired of the farce. From first 
to last France had treated him with the blackest 
injustice. If he had wished to be rich, he could long 
ago have accumulated wealth by casting in his lot with 
the dishonest rulers of Quebec. In England a strong 
clique, headed by Bridgar, Gillam, and Dering opposed 
him ; but King Charles and the Duke of York, 
Prince Rupert, when he was alive. Sir William 
Young, Sir James Hayes, and Sir John Kirke were 
in his favor. His heart yearned for his wife and 



LAST VOYAGE OF RADISSON i8i 

children. Just then letters came from England urg- 
ing him to return to the Hudson's Bay Company. 
Lord Preston plied the explorer with fair promises. 
Under threat of punishment for molesting the Eng- 
lish of Hudson Bay, the French government tried to 
force him into a contract to sail on a second voyage 
to the North on the same terms as in 1682-1683 — 
not to share the profits. England and France were 
both playing double. Radisson smiled a grim smile 
and took his resolution. Daily he conferred with 
the French Marine on details of the voyage. He 
permitted the date of sailing to be set for April 24. 
Sailors were enlisted, stores put on board, everything 
was in readiness. At the last moment, Radisson 
asked leave of absence to say good-by to his family. 
The request was granted. Without losing a moment, 
he sailed for England, where he arrived on the loth 
of May and was at once taken in hand by Sir William 
Young and Sir James Hayes. He was honored as 
his explorations entitled him to be. King Charles 
and the Duke of York received him. Both royal 
brothers gave him gifts in token of appreciation. He 
took the oath of fealty and cast in his lot with the 
English for good. It was characteristic of the enthu- 
siast that he was, when Radisson did not sign a 
strictly business contract with the Hudson's Bay 
Company. " I accepted their commission with the 



i82 PATHFINDERo OF THE WEST 

greatest pleasure in the world," he writes ; "... 
without any precautions on my part for my own 
interests . . . since they had confidence in me, I 
wished to be generous towards them ... in the hope 
they would render me all the justice due from gentle- 
men of honor and probity." 

But to the troubles of the future Radisson always 
paid small heed. Glad to be off once more to the 
adventurous freedom of the wilds, he set sail from 
England on May 17, 1684, in the Happy Return^ 
accompanied by two other vessels. No incident 
marked the voyage till the ships had passed through 
the straits and were driven apart by the ice-drift of the 
bay. About sixty miles out from Port Nelson, the 
Happy Return was held back by ice. Fearing trouble 
between young Jean Groseillers' men and the Eng- 
lish of the other ships, Radisson embarked in a shal- 
lop with seven men in order to arrive at Hayes 
River before the other boats came. Rowing with 
might and main for forty-eight hours, they came to 
the site of the French fort. 

The fort had been removed. Jean Groseillers had 
his own troubles during Radisson's absence. A few 
days after Radisson's departure in July, 1683, cannon 
announced the arrival of the annual English ships on 
Nelson River. Jean at once sent out scouts, who 
found a tribe of Indians on the way home from trad- 



LAST VOYAGE OF RADISSON 183 

ing with the ships that had fired the cannon. The 
scouts brought the Indians back to the French fort. 
Young Groseillers admitted the savages only one at 
a time ; but the cunning braves pretended to run back 
for things they had forgotten in the French house. 
Suspecting nothing, Jean had permitted his own men 
to leave the fort. On different pretexts, a dozen 
warriors had surrounded the young trader. Sud- 
denly the mask was thrown off. Springing up, 
treacherous as a tiger cat, the chief of the band struck 
at Groseillers with a dagger. Jean parried the blow, 
grabbed the redskin by his collar of bears' claw's 
strung on thongs, threw the assassin to the ground 
almost strangling him, and with one foot on the 
villain's throat and the sword point at his chest, 
demanded of the Indians what they meant. The 
savages would have fled, but French soldiers who had 
heard the noise dashed to Groseillers' aid. The 
Indians threw down their weapons and confessed all : 
the Englishmen of the ship had promised the band a 
barrel of powder to massacre the French. Jean took 
his foot from the Indian's throat and kicked him out 
of the tort. The English outnumbered the French; 
so Jean removed his fort farther from the bav, among 
the Indians, where the English could not follow. To 
keep the warriors about him, he offered to house and 
teed them tor the winter. This protected him from 



i84 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

the attacks of the EngHsh. In the spring Indians 
came to the French with pelts. Jean was short of 
firearms; so he bribed the Indians to trade their 
peltries to the English for guns, and to retrade the 
guns to him for other goods. It was a stroke worthy 
of Radisson himself, and saved the little French fort. 
The English must have suspected the young trader's 
straits, for they again paid warriors to attack the 
French ; but Jean had forestalled assault by forming 
an alliance with the Assiniboines, who came down 
Hayes River from Lake Winnipeg four hundred 
strong, and encamped a body-guard around the fort. 
Affairs were at this stage when Radisson arrived 
with news that he had transferred his services to the 
English. 

Young Groseillers was amazed.^ Letters to his 
mother show that he surrendered his charge with a 
very ill grace. " Do not forget," Radisson urged 
him, " the injuries that France has inflicted on your 
father." Young Groseillers' mother, Marguerite 
Hayet, was in want at Three Rivers.'^ It was 
memory of her that now turned the scales with the 
young man. He would turn over the furs to Radis- 
son for the English Company, if Radisson would take 
care of the far-away mother at Three Rivers. The 

1 See Appendix. 

2 State Papers record payment of money to her because she was in want. 



LAST VOYAGE OF RADISSON 185 

bargain was made, and the two embraced. The sur- 
render of the French furs to the EngHsh Company- 
has been represented as Radisson's crowning treachery. 
Under that odium the great discoverer's name has 
rested for nearly three centuries ; yet the accusation of 
theft is without a grain of truth. Radisson and Gro- 
seillers were to obtain half the proceeds of the voyage 
in 1682— 1683. Neither the explorers nor Jean Groseil- 
lers, who had privately invested XS'^'^ ^^ ^^^ venture, 
ever received one sou. The furs at Port Nelson — or 
Fort Bourbon — belonged to the Frenchmen, to do 
what they pleased with them. The act of the enthusi- 
ast is often tainted with folly. That Radisson turned 
over twenty thousand beaver pelts to the English, with- 
out the slightest assurance that he w^ould be given 
adequate return, was surely folly ; but it was not theft. 
The transfer of all possessions to the English was 
promptly made. Radisson then arranged a peace 
treaty between the Indians and the English. That 
peace treaty has endured between the Indians and the 
Hudson's Bay Company to this day. A new tort 
was built, the furs stored in the hold of the vessels, 
and the crews mustered for the return voyage. Radis- 
son had been given a solemn promise by the Hudson's 
Bay Company that Jean Groseillers and his comrades 
should be well treated and reengaged tor the English 
at ;^ioo a year. Now he learned that the English 



i86 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

intended to ship all the French out of Hudson Bay 
and to keep them out. The enthusiast had played his 
game with more zeal than discretion. The English 
had what they wanted — furs and fort. In return, 
Radisson had what had misled him like a will-o'-the- 
wisp all his life — vague promises. In vain Radisson 
protested that he had given his promise to the French 
before they surrendered the fort. The English dis- 
trusted foreigners. The Frenchmen had been mus- 
tered on the ships to receive last instructions. They 
were told that they were to be taken to England. No 
chance was given them to escape. Some of the 
French had gone inland with the Indians. Of Jean's 
colony, these alone remained. When Radisson real- 
ized the conspiracy, he advised his fellow-countrymen 
to make no resistance ; for he feared that some of the 
English bitter against him might seize on the pretext 
of a scuffle to murder the French. His advice proved 
wise. He had strong friends at the English court, 
and atonement was made for the breach of faith to the 
French. 

The ships set sail on the 4th of September and 
arrived in England on the 23d of October. Without 
waiting for the coach, Radisson hired a horse and 
spurred to London in order to give his version first of 
the quarrel on the bay. The Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany was delighted with the success of Radisson. He 



LAST VOYAGE OF RADISSON 187 

was taken before the directors, given a present of a 
hundred guineas, and thanked for his services. He 
was once more presented to the King and the Duke 
of York. The company redeemed its promise to 




Hudson Bay Dog Trains laden with Furs arriving at Lower Fort Garry, 
Red River. (Courtesy of C C- ChipTian, Commissioner H. B. Company.) 

Radisson by employing the Frenchmen of the surren- 
dered fort and offering to engage young Groseillers 
at ^100 a year.' 

1 Dr. George Bn.ce, who is really the only scholar who has tried to unravel the 
mysten- of Radisson's last days, supplies new facts about his dealings with the Company 
to I -10. 



i88 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

For five years the English kept faith with Radisson, 
and he made annual voyages to the bay ; but war 
broke out with France. New France entered on a 
brilliant campaign against the English of Hudson 
Bay. The company's profits fell. Radisson, the 
Frenchman, was distrusted. France had set a price on 
his head, and one Martiniere went to Port Nelson to 
seize him, but was unable to cope with the English. 
At no time did Radisson's salary with the company 
exceed ^^loo; and now, when war stopped dividends 
on the small amount of stock which had been given 
to him, he fell into poverty and debt. In 1692 Sir 
William Young petitioned the company in his favor ; 
but a man with a price on his head for treason could 
plainly not return to France.^ The French were in 
possession of the bay. Radisson could do no harm to 
the English. Therefore the company ignored him till 
he sued them and received payment in full for arrears 
of salary and dividends on stock which he was not per- 
mitted to sell ; but ^50 a year would not support a 
man who paid half that amount for rent, and had a 
wife, four children, and servants to support. In 1700 
Radisson applied for the position of warehouse keeper 
for the company at London. Even this was denied. 

The dauntless pathfinder was growing old ; and the 

1 Marquis de Denonville ordered the arrest of Radisson wherever he might be 
found. 



LAST VOYAGE OF RADISSON 189 

old cannot fight and lose and begin again as Radisson 
had done all his life. State Papers of Paris contain 
records of a Radisson with Tonty at Detroit!^ Was 
this his nephew, Fran9ois Radisson's son, who took 
the name of the explorer, or Radisson's own son, or 
the game old warrior himself, come out to die on the 
frontier as he had lived ? 

History is silent. Until the year 17 10 Radisson 
drew his allowance of ^50 a year from the English 
Company, then the payments stopped. Did the 
dauntless life stop too ? Oblivion hides all record of 
his death, as it obscured the brilliant achievements of 
his life. 

There is no need to point out Radisson's faults. 
They are written on his life without extenuation or 
excuse, so that all may read. There is less need to 
eulogize his virtues. They declare themselves in 
every act of his life. This, only, should be remem- 
bered. Like all enthusiasts, Radisson could not have 
been a hero, if he had not been a bit of a fool. If he 
had not had his faults, if he had not been as impulsive, 
as daring, as reckless, as inconstant, as improvident of 
the morrow, as a savage or a child, he would not have 
accomplished the exploration of half a continent. 
Men who weigh consequences are not of the stuff to 

1 Appendix ; sec State Papers. 



I90 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

win empires. Had Radisson haggled as to the means, 
he would have missed or muddled the end. He went 
ahead ; and when the way did not open, he went round, 
or crawled over, or carved his way through. 

There was an old saying among retired hunters of 
Three Rivers that " one learned more in the woods thaji 
was ever found in 1' petee cat-ee-cheesm." Radisson's 
training was of the woods, rather than the cure's cate- 
chism ; yet who that has been trained to the strictest 
code may boast of as dauntless faults and noble vir- 
tues ? He was not faithful to any country, but he was 
faithful to his wife and children ; and he was " faithful 
to his highest hope," — that of becoming a discoverer, 
— which is more than common mortals are to their 
meanest aspirations. When statesmen played him a 
double game, he paid them back in their own coin 
with compound interest. Perhaps that is why they 
hated him so heartily and blackened his memory. 
But amid all the mad license of savage life, Radisson 
remained untainted. Other explorers and statesmen, 
too, have left a trail of blood to perpetuate their mem- 
ory ; Radisson never once spilled human blood need- 
lessly, and was beloved by the savages. 

Memorial tablets commemorate other discoverers. 
Radisson needs none. The Great Northwest is his 
monument for all time. 



PART II 

THE SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA: BEING AN 
ACCOUNT OF THE DISCO\ ERY OF THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAINS, THE MISSOURI UPLANDS, AND THE 
VALLEY OF THE SASKATCHEWAN 



CHAPTER VIII 

1730-1750 

THE SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA^ 

M. de la Verendrye continues the Exploration of the Great North- 
west by establishing a Chain of Fur Posts across the Continent — 
Privations of the Explorers and the Massacre of Twenty Followers 
— His Sons visit the Mandans and discover the Rockies — The 
Valley of the Saskatchewan is next explored, but Jealousy thwarts 
the Explorer, and he dies in Poverty 

I 

1731-1736 

A CURIOUS paradox is that the men who have done 
the most for North America did not intend to do so. 
They set out on the far quest of a crack-brained ideal- 
ist's dream. They pulled up at a foreshortened 
purpose; but the unaccomplished aim did more for 
humanity than the idealist's dream. 

Columbus set out to find Asia. He discovered 
America. Jacques Cartier sought a mythical passage 

^ The authorities for La Verendrye's life are, of course, his own reports as found in 
the State Papers of the Canadian Archives, Pierre Margry's compilation of these 
reports, and the Rev. Father Jones' collection of the ^ulneau Letters. 

o 193 



194 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

to the Orient. He found a northern empire. La 
Salle thought to reach China. He succeeded only in 
exploring the valley of the Mississippi, but the new 
continent so explored has done more for humanity 
than Asia from time immemorial. Of all crack-brained 
dreams that led to far-reaching results, none was 
wilder than the search for the Western Sea. Mar- 
quette, Jolliet, and La Salle had followed the trail that 
Radisson had blazed and explored the valley of the 
Mississippi ; but like a will-o'-the-wisp beckoning ever 
westward was that undiscovered myth, the Western 
Sea, thought to lie like a narrow strait between 
America and Japan. 

The search began in earnest one sweltering afternoon 
on June 8, 1 73 1 , at the little stockaded fort on the banks 
of the St. Lawrence, where Montreal stands to-day. 
Fifty grizzled adventurers — wood runners, voyageurs, 
Indian interpreters — bareheaded, except for the 
colored handkerchief binding back the lank hair, 
dressed in fringed buckskin, and chattering with the 
exuberant nonchalance of boys out of school, had 
finished gumming the splits of their ninety-foot 
birch canoes, and now stood in line awaiting the com- 
ing of their captain, Sieur Pierre Gaultier de Varennes 
de la Verendrye. The French soldier with his three 
sons, aged respectively eighteen, seventeen, and sixteen, 
now essayed to discover the fabled Western Sea, whose 




jf%^W. 



jj-^^Jg^^ ^ ^rr*^*' '^■^- ^ 



m 



Indians and Hunters spurring to the Fight. 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 195 

narrow waters were supposed to be between the val- 
ley of the " Great Forked River " and the Empire of 
China. 

Certainly, if it were worth while for Peter the 
Great of Russia to send Vitus Bering coasting the 
bleak headlands of ice-blocked, misty shores to find 
the Western Sea, it would — as one of the French 
governors reported — " be nobler than open war " for 
the little colony of New France to discover this "sea of 
the setting sun," The quest was invested with all the 
rainbow tints of " la gloire " ; but the rainbow hopes 
were founded on the practical basis of profits. Lead- 
ing merchants of Montreal had advanced goods for 
trade with the Indians on the way to the Western Sea. 
Their expectations of profits were probably the same 
as the man's who buys a mining share for ten cents 
and looks for dividends of several thousand per cent. 
And the fur trade at that time was capable of yielding 
such profits. Traders had gone West with less than 
$2000 worth of goods in modern money, and re- 
turned three years later with a sheer profit of a quarter 
of a million. Hope of such returns added zest to De 
la V^erendrye's venture for the discovery of the West- 
ern Sea. 

Goods done up in packets of a hundred pounds lay 
at the feet of the voyageurs awaiting De la Verendrye's 
command. A dozen soldiers in the plumed hats. 



196 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

slashed buskins, the brightly colored doublets of the 
period, joined the motley company. Priests came out 
to bless the departing voyageurs. Chapel bells rang 
out their God-speed. To the booming of cannon, and 
at a word from De la Verendrye, the gates opened. 
Falling in line with measured tread, the soldiers marched 
out from Mount Royal. Behind, in the ambling gait 
of the moccasined woodsman, came the voyageurs and 
coureurs and interpreters, pack-straps across their fore- 
heads, packets on the bent backs, the long birch canoes 
hoisted to the shoulders of four men, two abreast at 
each end, heads hidden in the inverted keel. 

The path led between the white fret of Lachine 
Rapids and the dense forests that shrouded the base 
of Mount Royal. Checkerboard squares of farm 
patches had been cleared in the woods. La Salle's 
old thatch-roofed seigniory lay not far back from the 
water. St. Anne's was the launching place for fleets 
of canoes that were to ascend the Ottawa. Here, a 
last look was taken of splits and seams in the birch 
keels. With Invocations of St. Anne in one breath, 
and invocations of a personage not mentioned in the 
cure's " petee cat-ee-cheesm " in the next breath, and 
imprecations that their " souls might be smashed on 
the end of a picket fence," — the voyageurs common 
oath even to this day, — the boatmen stored goods 
fore, aft, and athwart till each long canoe sank to the 




Fight ai the Fool-hills of the Rockies between Crows and Snakes. 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 197 

gunwale as it was gently pushed out on the water. A 
last sign of the cross, and the lithe figures leap light 
as a mountain cat to their place in the canoes. There 
are four benches of paddlers, two abreast, with bowman 
and steersman, to each canoe. One can guess that the 
explorer and his sons and his nephew, Sieur de la Jem- 
meraie, who was to be second in command, all unhatted 
as they heard the long last farewell of the bells. 
Every eye is fastened on the chief bowman's steel-shod 
pole, held high — there is silence but for the bells — 
the bowman's pole is lowered — as with one stroke out 
sweep the paddles in a poetry of motion. The chimes 
die away over the water, the chapel spire gleams — it, 
too, is gone. Some one strikes up a plaintive ditty, — 
the voyageurs song of the lost lady and the faded 
roses, or the dying farewell of Cadieux, the hunter, to 
his comrades, — and the adventurers are launched for 
the Western Sea. 

II 

1731-1736 

Every mile westward was consecrated by heroism. 
There was the place where Cadieux, the white hunter, 
went ashore single-handed to hold the Iroquois at bav, 
while his comrades escaped by running the rapids; 
but Cadieux was assailed by a subtler foe than the 
Iroquois, la folie des bois^ — the folly of the woods, — 



198 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

that sends the hunter wandering in endless circles till 
he dies from hunger; and when his companions re- 
turned, Cadieux lay in eternal sleep with a death chant 
scribbled on bark across his breast. There were the 
Rapids of the Long Sault where DoUard and seven- 
teen Frenchmen fought seven hundred Iroquois till 
every white man fell. Not one of all De la Verendrye's 
fifty followers but knew that perils as great awaited 
him. 

Streaked foam told the voyageurs where they were 
approaching rapids. Alert as a hawk, the bowman 
stroked for the shore ; and his stroke was answered by 
all paddles. If the water were high enough to carry 
the canoes above rocks, and the rapids were not too 
violent, several of the boatmen leaped out to knees in 
water, and " tracked " the canoes up stream ; but this 
was unusual with loaded craft. The bowman steadied 
the beached keel. Each man landed with pack on his 
back, lighted his pipe, and trotted away over portages 
so dank and slippery that only a moccasined foot could 
gain hold. On long portages, camp-fires were kindled 
and the kettles slung on the crotched sticks for the 
evening meal. At night, the voyageurs slept under 
the overturned canoes, or lay on the sand with bare 
faces to the sky. Morning mist had not risen till all 
the boats were once more breasting the flood of the 
Ottawa. For a month the canoe prows met the cur- 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 199 

rent when a portage lifted the fleet out of the Ottawa 
into a shallow stream flowing toward Lake Nipissing, 




I 



" Each man landed with pack on his back, and trotted away over portages." 

and from Lake Nipissing to Lake Huron. The 
change was a welcome relief The canoes now rode 
with the current ; and when a wind sprang up astern, 



200 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 



blanket sails were hoisted that let the boatmen lie back, 
paddles athwart. Going with the stream, the voya- 
geurs would "run" — ^^ sauter les rapides" — the 
„a safest of the cata- 

racts. Bowman, 
not steersman, was 
the pilot of such 
"runs." A faint, 
far swish as of 
night wind, little 
forward leaps and 
swirls of the cur- 
rent, the blur of 
trees on either 
bank, were signs to 
the bowman. He 
rose in his place. 
A thrust of the 
steel-shod pole at 
a rock in mid- 
stream — the rock 
raced past ; a throb 
of the keel to the 
live waters below 
— the bowman crouches back, lightening the prow 
just as a rider " lifts " his horse to the leap ; a sudden 
splash — the thing has happened — the canoe has run 
the rapids or shot the falls. 




A Cree Indian of the Minnesota Borderlands. 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 201 

Pause was made at Lake Huron for favorable 
weather; and a rear wind would carry the canoes at a 
bouncing pace clear across to Michilimackinac, at the 
mouth of Lake Michigan. This was the chief fur post 
of the lakes at that time. All the boats bound east or 
west, Sioux and Cree and Iroquois and Fox, traders' 
and priests' and outlaws' — stopped at Michilimackinac. 
Vice and brandy and religion were the characteristics 
of the fort. 

This was familiar ground to De la Verendrye. It 
was at the lonely fur post of Nepigon, north of 
Michilimackinac, in the midst of a wilderness forest, 
that he had eaten his heart out with baffled ambition 
from 1728 to 1730, when he descended to Montreal to 
lay before M. de Beauharnois, the governor, plans for 
the discovery of the Western Sea. Born at Three 
Rivers in 1686, where the passion for discoverv and 
Radisson's fame were in the very air and traders from 
the wilderness of the Upper Country wintered, young 
Pierre Gaultier de Varennes de la Verendrye, at the 
ambitious age of fourteen, determined that he would 
become a discoverer.^ At eighteen he was fighting 
in New England, at nineteen in Newfoundland, at 
twenty-three in Europe at the battle of Malplaquet, 
where he was carried off the field with nine wounds. 

1 The Pays J' en Haut or '* Up-Countr\' " was the vague name given by the fur 
traders to the region between the Missouri and the North Pole. 



202 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Eager for more distinguished service, he returned to 
Canada in his twenty-seventh year, only to find himself 
relegated to an obscure trading post in far Northern 
wilds. Then the boyhood ambitions reawakened. All 
France and Canada, too, were ringing with projects for 
the discovery of the Western Sea. Russia was acting. 
France knew it. The great priest Charlevoix had 
been sent to Canada to investigate plans for the ven- 
ture, and had recommended an advance westward 
through the country of the Sioux; but the Sioux ^ 
swarmed round the little fort at Lake Pepin on the 
Mississippi like angry wasps. That way, exploration 
was plainly barred. Nothing came of the attempt 
except a brisk fur trade and a brisker warfare on the 
part of the Sioux. At the lonely post of Nepigon, 
vague Indian tales came to De la Verendrye of " a 
great river flowing west " and " a vast, flat country 
devoid of timber" with "large herds of cattle." Ocha- 
gach, an old Indian, drew maps on birch bark showing 
rivers that emptied into the Western Sea. De la 
Verendrye's smouldering ambitions kindled. He 
hurried to Michilimackinac. There the traders and 
Indians told the same story. Glory seemed suddenly 
within De la Verendrye's grasp. Carried away with 
the passion for discovery that ruled his age, he took 

1 Throughout this volume the word "Sioux" is used as applying to the entire 
confederacy, and not to the Minnesota Sioux only. 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 203 

passage in the canoes bound for Quebec. The Mar- 
quis Charles de Beauharnois had become governor. 
His brother Claude had taken part in the exploration 
of the Mississippi. The governor favored the project 
of the Western Sea. Perhaps Russia's activity gave 
edge to the governor's zest ; but he promised De la 
Verendrye the court's patronage and prestige. This 
was not money. France would not advance the en- 
thusiast one sou, but granted him a monopoly of the 
' fur trade in the countries which he might discover. 
The winter of 173 i— 1732 was spent by De la Veren- 
drye as the guest of the governor at Chateau St. Louis, 
arranging with merchants to furnish goods for trade ; 
and on May 19 the agreement was signed. By a 
lucky coincidence, the same winter that M. de la 
Verendrye had come down to Quebec, there had 
arrived from the Mississippi fort, his nephew, Chris- 
topher Dufrost, Sieur de la Jemmeraie, who had com- 
manded the Sioux post and been prisoner among the 
Indians. So M. de la Verendrye chose Jemmeraie 
for lieutenant. 

And now the explorer was back at Michilimackinac, 
on the way to the accomplishment of the daring ambi- 
tion of his life. The trip from Montreal had fatigued 
the voyageurs. Brandy flowed at the lake post freely 
as at a modern mining camp. The explorer kept 
military discipline over his men. They received no 



204 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

pay which could be squandered away on liquor. Dis- 
content grew rife. Taking Father Messaiger, the 
Jesuit, as chaplain, M. de la Verendrye ordered his 
grumbling voyageurs to their canoes, and, passing 
through the Straits of the Sault, headed his fleet once 
more for the Western Sea. Other explorers had pre- 
ceded him on this part of the route. The Jesuits 
had coasted the north shore of Lake Superior. So had 
Radisson. In 1688 De Noyon of Three Rivers had 
gone as far west as the Lake of the Woods towards 
what is now Minnesota and Manitoba; and in 1717 
De Lanoue had built a fur post at Kaministiquia, near 
what is now Fort William on Lake Superior. The 
shore was always perilous to the boatman of frail craft. 
The harbors were fathoms deep, and the waves thrashed 
by a cross wind often proved as dangerous as the high 
sea. It took M. de la Verendrye's canoemen a month 
to coast from the Straits of Mackinaw to Kaministiquia, 
which they reached on the 26th of August, seventy- 
eight days after they had left Montreal. The same 
distance is now traversed in two davs. 

Prospects were not encouraging. The crews were 
sulky. Kaministiquia was the outermost post in the 
West. Within a month, the early Northern winter 
would set in. One hunter can scramble for his win- 
ter's food where fifty will certainly starve ; and the 
Indians could not be expected back from the chase 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 205 

with supplies of furs and food till spring. The canoe- 
men had received no pay. Free as woodland denizens, 
they chafed under military command. Boats were 
always setting out at this season for the homeland 
hamlets of the St. Lawrence ; and perhaps other 
hunters told De la Verendrye's men that this West- 
ern Sea was a will-o'-the-wisp that would lead for 
leagues and leagues over strange lands, through hostile 
tribes, to a lonely death in the wilderness. When the 
explorer ordered his men once more in line to launch 
for the Western Sea, there was outright mutiny. 
Soldiers and boatmen refused to go on. The Jesuit 
Messaiger threatened and expostulated with the men. 
Jemmeraie, who had been among the Sioux, inter- 
ceded with the voyageurs. A compromise was 
effected. Half the boatmen would go ahead with 
Jemmeraie if M. de la Verendrye would remain with 
the other half at Lake Superior as a rear guard for 
retreat and the supply of provisions. So the explorer 
suffered his first check in the advance to the Western 
Sea, 

III 

1732-1736 

Equipping four canoes, Lieutenant de la Jemmeraie 
and young Jean Ba'tiste de la Verendrye set out with 
thirty men from Kaministiquia, portaged through 



2o6 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

dense forests over moss and dank rock past the high 
cataract of the falls, and launched westward to prepare 
a fort for the reception of their leader in spring. 
Before winter had closed navigation, Fort St. Pierre 
— named in honor of the explorer — had been erected 
on the left bank or Minnesota side of Rainy Lake, 
and the two young men not only succeeded in holding 
their mutinous followers, but drove a thriving trade in 
furs with the Crees. Perhaps the furs were obtained 
at too great cost, for ammunition and firearms were 
the price paid, but the same mistake has been made 
at a later day for a lesser object than the discovery of 
the Western Sea. The spring of 1732 saw the young 
men back at Lake Superior, going post-haste to 
Michilimackinac to exchange furs for the goods from 
Montreal. 

On the 8th of June, exactly a year from the day 
that he had left Montreal, M. de la Verendrye pushed 
forward with all his people for Fort St. Pierre. Five 
weeks later he was welcomed inside the stockades. 
Uniformed soldiers were a wonder to the awe-struck 
Crees, who hung round the gateway with hands over 
their hushed lips. Gifts of ammunition won the 
loyalty of the chiefs. Not to be lacking in generosity, 
the Indians collected fifty of their gaudiest canoes and 
offered to escort the explorer west to the Lake of the 
Woods. De la Verendrye could not miss such an 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 207 

offer. Though his voyageurs were fatigued, he set out 
at once. He had reached Fort St. Pierre on July 14. 
In August his entire fleet glided over the Lake of the 
Woods. The threescore canoes manned by the Cree 
boatmen threaded the shadowy defiles and labyrinthine 
channels of the Lake of the Woods — or Lake of the 
Isles — coasting island after island along the south or 




A Group of Cree Indians. 



Minnesota shore westward to the opening of the river 
at the northwest angle. This was the border of the 
Sioux territory. Before the boatmen opened the 
channel of an unknown river. Around them were 
sheltered harbors, good hunting, and good fishing. 
The Crees favored this region tor winter camping 
ground because they could hide their families from 



2o8 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

the Sioux on the sheltered islands of the wooded lake. 
Night frosts had painted the forests red. The flacker 
of wild-fowl overhead, the skim of ice forming on the 
lake, the poignant sting of the north wind — all fore- 
warned winter's approach, Jean de la Verendrye had 
not come up with the supplies from Michilimackinac. 
The explorer did not tempt mutiny by going farther. 
He ordered a halt and began building a fort that was 
to be the centre of operations between Montreal and 
the unfound Western Sea. The fort was named St. 
Charles in honor of Beauharnois. It was defended by 
four rows of thick palisades fifteen feet high. In the 
middle of the enclosure stood the living quarters, log 
cabins with thatched roofs. 

By October the Indians had scattered to their 
hunting-grounds like leaves to the wind. The ice 
thickened. By November the islands were ice-locked 
and snow had drifted waist-high through the forests. 
The voyageurs could still fish through ice holes for 
food ; but where was young Jean who was to bring up 
provisions from Michilimackinac ? The commander 
did not voice his fears ; and his men were too deep in 
the wilds for desertion. One afternoon, a shout 
sounded from the silent woods, and out from the 
white-edged evergreens stepped a figure on snow- 
shoes — Jean de la Verendrye, leading his boatmen, 
with the provisions packed on their backs, from a point 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 209 

fifty miles away where the ice had caught the canoes. 
If the SLippHes had not come, the explorer could 
neither have advanced nor retreated in spring. It 
was a risk that De la Verendrye did not intend to 
have repeated. Suspecting that his merchant part- 
ners were dissatisfied, he sent Jemmeraie down to 
Montreal in 1733 to report and urge the necessity for 
prompt forwarding of all supplies. With Jemmeraie 
went the Jesuit Messaiger; but their combined expla- 
nations failed to satisfy the merchants of Montreal. 
De la Verendrye had now been away three years. 
True, he had constructed two fur posts and sent East 
two cargoes of furs. His partners were looking for 
enormous wealth. Disappointed and caring nothing 
for the Western Sea ; perhaps, too, secretly accusing De 
la Verendrye of making profits privately, as many a 
gentleman of fortune did, — the merchants decided to 
advance provisions onlv in proportion to earnings. 
What would become of the fifty men in the Northern 
wilderness the partners neither asked nor cared. 

Young Jean had meanwhile pushed on and built 
Fort Maurepas on Lake Winnipeg; but his father 
dared not leave Fort St. Charles without supplies. 
De la Verendrye's position was now desperate. He was 
hopelessly In debt to his men for wages. That did 
not help discipline. His partners w^ere not only with- 
holding supplies, but charging up a high rate of in- 



2IO PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

terest on the first equipment. To turn back meant 
ruin. To go forward he was powerless. Leaving 
Jemmeraie in command, and permitting his eager son 
to go ahead with a few picked men to Fort Maurepas 
on Lake Winnipeg, De la Verendrye took a small canoe 
and descended with all swiftness to Quebec. The win- 
ter of 1634— 1635 was spent with the governor; and 
the partners were convinced that they must either go 
on with the venture or lose all. They consented to 
continue supplying goods, but also charging all outlay 
against the explorer. 

Father Aulneau went back with De la Verendrye as 
chaplain. The trip was made at terrible speed, in the 
hottest season, through stifling forest fires. Behind, 
at slower pace, came the provisions. De la Verendrye 
reached the Lake of the Woods in September. 
Fearing the delay of the goods for trade, and dread- 
ing the danger of famine with so many men in one 
place, De la Verendrye despatched Jemmeraie to winter 
with part of the forces at Lake Winnipeg, where Jean 
and Pierre, the second son, had built Fort Maurepas. 
The worst fears were realized. Ice had blocked the 
Northern rivers by the time the supplies had come to 
Lake Superior. Fishing failed. The hunt was poor. 
During the winter of 1736 food became scantier at the 
little forts of St. Pierre, St. Charles, and Maurepas. 
Rations were reduced from three times to once and 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 211 

twice a day. By spring De la Verendrye was put to 
all the extremities of famine-stricken traders, his men 
subsisting on parchment, moccasin leather, roots, and 
their hunting dogs. 

He was compelled to wait at St. Charles for the 
delayed supplies. While he waited came blow upon 
blow : Jean and Pierre arrived from Fort Maurepas 
with news that Jemmeraie had died three weeks before 
on his way down to aid De la Verendrye. Wrapped in 
a hunter's robe, his body was buried in the sand-bank 
of a little Northern stream, La Fourche des Roseaux. 
Over the lonely grave the two brothers had erected a 
cross. Father and sons took stock of supplies. They 
had not enough powder to last another month, and 
already the Indians were coming in with furs and food 
to be traded for ammunition. If the Crees had 
known the weakness of the white men, short work 
might have been made of Fort St. Charles. It never 
entered the minds of De la Verendrye and his sons to 
give up. They decided to rush three canoes of twenty 
voyageurs to Michilimackinac for food and powder. 
Father Aulneau, the young priest, accompanied the 
boatmen to attend a religious retreat at Michili- 
mackinac. It had been a hard year for the youth- 
ful missionary. The ship that brought him from 
I^'rance had been plague-stricken. The trip to Fort 
St. Charles had been arduous and swift, through 



212 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

stifling heat ; and the year passed in the North was 
one of famine. 

Accompanied by the priest and led by Jean de la 
Verendrye, now in his twenty-third year, the voya- 
geurs embarked hurriedly on the 8th of June, 1736, 
five years to a day from the time that they left Mont- 
real — and a fateful day it was — in the search for the 
Western Sea. The Crees had always been friendly ; 
and when the boatmen landed on a sheltered island 
twenty miles from Fort St. Charles to camp for the 
night, no sentry was stationed. The lake lay calm as 
glass in the hot June night, the camp-fire casting long 
lines across the water that could be seen for miles. 
An early start was to be made in the morning and a 
furious pace to be kept all the way to Lake Superior, 
and the voyageurs were presently sound asleep on the 
sand. The keenest ears could scarcely have distin- 
guished the soft lapping of muflled paddles ; and no 
one heard the moccasined tread of ambushed Indians 
reconnoitring. Seventeen Sioux stepped from their 
canoes, stole from cover to cover, and looked out on 
the unsuspecting sleepers. Then the Indians as noise- 
lessly slipped back to their canoes to carry word of the 
discovery to a band of marauders. 

Something had occurred at Fort St. Charles without 
M. de la Verendrye's knowledge. Hilarious with 
their new possessions of firearms, and perhaps, also. 



"The soldiers marched out from Mount Royal." 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 213 

mad with the brandy of which Father Auhieau had 
complained, a few mischievous Crees had fired from the 
fort on wandering Sioux of the prairie. 

"Who — lire — on — us?" demanded the out- 
raged Sioux. 

" The French," laughed the Crees. 

The Sioux at once went back to a band of one hun- 
dred and thirty warriors. " Tigers of the plains " the 
Sioux were called, and now the tigers' blood was up. 
They set out to slay the first white man seen. By 
chance, he was one Bourassa, coasting by himself. 
Taking him captive, they had tied him to burn him, 
when a slave squaw rushed out, crying : " What would 
you do ? This Frenchman is a friend of the Sioux ! 
He saved my life ! If you desire to be avenged, go 
farther on ! You will find a camp of Frenchmen, 
among whom is the son of the white chief!" 

The voyageur was at once unbound, and scouts 
scattered to find the white men. Night had passed 
before the scouts had carried news of Jean de la Veren- 
drye's men to the marauding warriors. The ghostly 
gray of dawn saw the voyageur s paddling swiftly 
through the morning mist from island to island of 
the Lake of the Woods. Cleaving the mist behind, 
following solely by the double foam wreaths rippling 
from the canoe prows, came the silent boats of the 
Sioux. When sunrise lifted the fog, the pursuers 



214 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

paused like stealthy cats. At sunrise Jean de la 
Verendrye landed his crews for breakfast. Camp-fires 
told the Indians where to follow. 

A few days later bands of Sautaux came to the 
camping ground of the French. The heads of the 
white men lay on a beaver skin. All had been scalped. 
The missionary, Aulneau, was on his knees, as if in 
morning prayers. An arrow projected from his head. 
His left hand was on the earth, fallen forward, his 
right hand uplifted, invoking Divine aid. Young 
Verendrye lay face down, his back hacked to pieces, 
a spear sunk in his waist, the headless body mockingly 
decorated with porcupine quills. So died one of the 
bravest of the young nobility in New France. 

The Sautaux erected a cairn of stones over the 
bodies of the dead. All that was known of the mas- 
sacre was vague Indian gossip. The Sioux reported 
that they had not intended to murder the priest, but a 
crazy-brained fanatic had shot the fatal arrow and 
broken from restraint, weapon in hand. Rain-storms 
had washed out all marks of the fray. 

In September the bodies of the victims were carried 
to Fort St. Charles, and interred in the chapel. Eight 
hundred Crees besought M. de la Verendrye to let 
them avenge the murder ; but the veteran of Mal- 
plaquet exhorted them not to war. Meanwhile, Fort 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 215 

St. Charles awaited the coming of supplies from Lake 
Superior. 

IV 

1736-1740 

A week passed, and on the 17th of June the canoe 
loads of ammunition and supplies for which the mur- 
dered voyageurs had been sent arrived at Fort St. 
Charles. In June the Indian hunters came in with 
the winter's hunt ; and on the 20th thirty Sautaux 
hurried to Fort St. Charles, to report that they had 
found the mangled bodies of the massacred French- 
men on an island seven leagues from the fort. Again 
La Verendrye had to choose whether to abandon his 
cherished dreams, or follow them at the risk of ruin 
and death. As before, when his men had mutinied, 
he determined to advance. 

Jean, the eldest son, was dead. Pierre and Fran- 
9ois were with their father. Louis, the youngest, now 
seventeen years of age, had come up with the supplies. 
Pierre at once went to Lake Winnipeg, to prepare 
Fort Maurepas for the reception of all the forces. 
Winter set in. Snow lay twelve feet deep in the 
forests now known as the Minnesota Borderlands. 
On February 8, 1737, in the face of a biting north 
wind, with the thermometer at forty degrees below 
zero, M. de la Verendrye left Fort St. Charles, Fran- 



ai6 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

^ois carrying the French flag, with ten soldiers, wearing 
snow-shoes, in line behind, and two or three hundred 
Crees swathed in furs bringing up a ragged rear. The 
bright uniforms of the soldiers were patches of red 
among the snowy everglades. Bivouac was made on 
beds of pine boughs, — feet to the camp-fire, the night 
frost snapping like a whiplash, the stars flashing with 
a steely clearness known only in northern climes. The 
march was at a swift pace, for three weeks by canoe is 
short enough time to traverse the Minnesota and Mani- 
toba Borderlands northwest to Lake Winnipeg ; and 
in seventeen days M. de la Verendrye was at Fort 
Maurepas. 

Fort Maurepas (in the region of the modern Alex- 
ander) lay on a tongue of sand extending into the lake 
a few miles beyond the entrance of Red River. Tama- 
rack and poplar fringe the shore ; and in windy weather 
the lake is lashed into a roughness that resembles the 
flux of ocean tides. I remember once going on a steamer 
towards the site of Maurepas. The ship drew lightest 
of draft. While we were anchored the breeze fell, and 
the ship was stranded as if by ebb tide for twenty-four 
hours. The action of the wind explained the Indian 
tales of an ocean tide, which had misled La Verendrye 
into expecting to find the Western Sea at this point. 
He found a magnificent body of fresh water, but 
not the ocean. The fort was the usual pioneer fur 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 217 

post — a barracks of unbarked logs, chinked up with 
frozen clay and moss, roofed with branches and snow, 
occupying the centre of a courtyard, palisaded by slabs 
ot pine logs. M. de la Verendrye was now in the 
true realm ot the explorer — in territory where no 
other white man had trod. With a shout his motley 






- _^ - __ _ ._ __ '-■^' Tt. - 

Traders' Boats running the Rapids of the Athabasca River. 

forces emerged from the snowy tamaracks, and with a 
shout from Pierre de la Verendrye and his tawny 
followers the explorer was welcomed through the gate- 
way of little Fort Maurepas. 

Pierre de la Verendrye had heard of a region to the 
south much frequented by the Assiniboine Indians, 



2i8 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

who had conducted Radisson to the Sea of the North 
fifty years before — the Forks where the Assiniboine 
River joins the Red, and the city of Winnipeg stands 
to-day. It was reported that game was plentiful here. 
Two hundred tepees of Assiniboines were awaiting the 
explorer. His forces were worn with their marching, 
but in a few weeks the glaze of ice above the fathomless 
drifts of snow would be too rotten for travel, and not 
until June would the riverways be clear for canoes. 
But such a scant supply of goods had his partners sent 
up that poor De la Verendrye had nothing to trade 
with the waiting Assiniboines. Sending his sons for- 
ward to reconnoitre the Forks of the Assiniboine, — the 
modern Winnipeg, — he set out for Montreal as soon 
as navigation opened, taking with him fourteen great 
canoes of precious furs. 

The fourteen canoe loads proved his salvation. As 
long as there were furs and prospects of furs, his part- 
ners would back the enterprise of finding the Western 
Sea. The winter of 1738 was spent as the guest of 
the governor at Chateau St. Louis. The partners 
were satisfied, and plucked up hope of their venture. 
They would advance provisions in proportion to 
earnings. By September he was back at Fort Maure- 
pas on Lake Winnipeg, pushing for the undiscovered 
bourne of the Western Sea. Leaving orders for trade 
with the chief clerk at Maurepas, De la Verendrye 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 219 

picked out his most intrepid men ; and in September 
of 1738, for the first time in history, white men gHded 
up the ochre-colored, muddy current of the Red for 
the Forks of the Assiniboine. Ten Cree wigwams 
and two war chiefs awaited De la Verendrye on the 
low flats of what are now known as South Winnipeg. 
Not the fabled Western Sea, but an illimitable ocean 
of rolling prairie — the long russet grass rising and 
falling to the wind like waves to the run of invisible 
feet — stretched out before the eager eyes of the 
explorer. Northward lay the autumn-tinged brush- 
wood of Red River. South, shimmering in the 
purple mists of Indian summer, was Red River 
Valley. Westward the sun hung like a red shield, 
close to the horizon, over vast reaches of prairie billow- 
ing to the sky-line in the tide of a boundless ocean. 
Such was the discovery of the Canadian Northwest. 

Doubtless the weary gaze of the tired voyageurs 
turned longingly westward. Where was the Western 
Sea ? Did it lie just beyond the horizon where sky- 
line and prairie met, or did the trail of their quest run 
on — on — on — endlessly? The Assiniboine flows 
into the Red, the Red into Lake Winnipeg, the Lake 
into Hudson Bay. Plainly, Assiniboine Valley was 
not the way to the Western Sea. But what lay just 
beyond this Assiniboine Valley ? An old Cree chief 
warned the boatmen that the Assiniboine River was 



220 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

very low and would wreck the canoes ; but he also 
told vague yarns of " great waters beyond the moun- 
tains of the setting sun," where white men dwelt, and 




The Ragged Sky-line of the Mountains. 

the waves came in a tide, and the waters were salt. 
The Western Sea where the Spaniards dwelt had long 
been known. It was a Western Sea to the north, that 
would connect Louisiana and Canada, that De la Veren- 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 221 

drve sought. The Indian fables, without doubt, referred 
to a sea beyond the Assiniboine River, and thither 
would De la Verendrye go at any cost. Some sort of 
barracks or shelter was knocked up on the south side 
of the Assiniboine opposite the flats. It was subse- 
quently known as Fort Rouge, after the color of the 
adjacent river, and was the foundation of Winnipeg. 
Leaving men to trade at Fort Rouge, De la Verendrye 
set out on September 26, 1738, for the height of land 
that must lie beyond the sources of the Assiniboine. De 
la Verendrye was now like a man hounded by his own 
Frankenstein. A thousand leagues — every one marked 
by disaster and failure and sinking hopes — lay behind 
him. A thousand leagues of wilderness lay before 
him. He had only a handful of men. The Assini- 
boine Indians were of dubious friendliness. The 
white men were scarce of food. In a few weeks they 
would be exposed to the terrible rigors of Northern 
winter. Yet they set their faces toward the west, types 
ot the pioneers who have carved empire out of wil- 
derness. 

The Assiniboine was winding and low, with many 
sand bars. On the wooded banks deer and buffalo 
grazed in such countless multitudes that the boatmen 
took them for great herds of cattle. Flocks of wild 
geese darkened the sky overhead. As the boats 
wound up the shallows of the river, ducks rose in 



222 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

myriad flocks. Prairie wolves skulked away from the 
river bank, and the sand-hill cranes were so unused to 
human presence that they scarcely rose as the voya- 
geurs poled past. While the boatmen poled, the 
soldiers marched in military order across country, so 
avoiding the bends of the river. Daily, Crees and 
Assiniboines of the plains joined the white men. A 
week after leaving the Forks or Fort Rouge, De la 
Verendrye came to the Portage of the Prairie, leading 
north to Lake Manitoba and from the lake to 
Hudson Bay. Clearly, northward was not the way to 
the Western Sea; but the Assiniboines told of a peo- 
ple to the southwest — the Mandans — who knew a 
people who lived on the Western Sea. As soon as 
his baggage came up, De la Verendrye ordered the con- 
struction of a fort — called De la Reine — on the 
banks of the Assiniboine. This was to be the for- 
warding post for the Western Sea. To the Mandans 
living on the Missouri, who knew a people living on 
salt water, De la Verendrye now directed his course. 

On the morning of October i8 drums beat to 
arms. Additional men had come up from, the other 
forts. Fifty-two soldiers and voyageurs now stood in 
line. Arms were inspected. To each man were given 
powder, balls, axe, and kettle. Pierre and Fran9ois de 
la Verendrye hoisted the French flag. For the first 
time a bugle call sounded over the prairie. At the 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 223 

word, out stepped the little band of white men, mark- 
ing time for the Western Sea. The course lay west- 
southwest, up the Souris River, through wooded 
ravines now stripped of foliage, past alkali sloughs ice- 
edged by frost, over rolling cliffs russet and bare, where 
gopher and badger and owl and roving buffalo were 




Hungry Hall, 1870; near the site of the Verendrye Fort in Rainy 
River Region. 

the only signs of life. On the 21st of October two 
hundred Assiniboine warriors joined the marching 
white men. In the sheltered ravines buffalo grazed by 
the hundreds of thousands, and the march was delayed 
by frequent buffalo hunts to gather pemmican — 
pounded marrow and fat of the buffalo — which was 



224 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

much esteemed by the Mandans. Within a month 
so many Assiniboines had joined the French that the 
company numbered more than six hundred warriors, 
who were ample protection against the Sioux ; and the 
Sioux were the deadly terror of all tribes of the plains. 
But M. de la Verendrye was expected to present 
ammunition to his Assiniboine friends. 

Four outrunners went speeding to the Missouri to 
notify the Mandans of the advancing warriors. The 
coureurs carried presents of pemmican. To prevent 
surprise, the Assiniboines marched under the sheltered 
slopes of the hills and observed military order. In front 
rode the warriors, dressed in garnished buckskin and 
armed with spears and arrows. Behind, on foot, came 
the old and the lame. To the rear was another guard 
of warriors. Lagging in ragged lines far back came a 
ragamuffin brigade, the women, children, and dogs 
— squaws astride cayuses lean as barrel hoops, chil- 
dren in moss bags on their mothers' backs, and horses 
and dogs alike harnessed with the travaille — two 
sticks tied into a triangle, with the shafts fastened to a 
cinch on horse or dog. The joined end of the shafts 
dragged on the ground, and between them hung the 
baggage, surmounted by papoose, or pet owl, or the 
half-tamed pup of a prairie-wolf, or even a wild-eyed 
young squaw with hair flying to the wind. At night 
camp was made in a circle formed of the hobbled 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 225 

horses. Outside, the dogs scoured in pursuit of 
coyotes. The women and children took refuge in the 
centre, and the warriors slept near their picketed 
horses. By the middle of November the motley caval- 
cade had crossed the height of land between the Assini- 
boine River and the Missouri, and was heading for 
the Mandan villages. Mandan coureurs came out 
to welcome the visitors, pompously presenting De la 
Verendrye with corn in the ear and tobacco. At this 
stage, the explorer discovered that his bag of presents 
for his hosts had been stolen by the Assiniboines ; but 
he presented the Mandans with what ammunition he 
could spare, and gave them plenty of pemmican which 
his hunters had cured. The two tribes drove a brisk 
trade in furs, which the northern Indians offered, and 
painted plumes, which the Mandans displayed to the 
envy of Assiniboine warriors. 

On the 3d of December, De la Verendrye's sons 
stepped before the ragged host of six hundred savages 
with the French flag hoisted. The explorer himself 
was lifted to the shoulders of the Mandan coureurs. 
A gun was fired and the strange procession set out for 
the Mandan villages. In this fashion white men first 
took possession of the Upper Missouri. Some miles 
from the lodges a band of old chiefs met De la \'eren- 
drve and gravely handed him a grand calumet of pipe- 
stone ornamented with eagle feathers. I his typified 

Q 



226 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

peace. De la Verendrye ordered his fifty French fol- 
lowers to draw up in line. The sons placed the 
French flag four paces to the fore. The Assiniboine 
warriors took possession in stately Indian silence to 
the right and left of the whites. At a signal three 
thundering volleys of musketry were fired. The 
Mandans fell back, prostrated with fear and wonder. 
The command " forward " was given, and the Man- 
dan village was entered in state at four in the afternoon 
of December 3, 1738. 

The village was in much the same condition as a 
hundred years later when visited by Prince Maxi- 
miHan and by the artist Catlin. It consisted of 
circular huts, with thatched roofs, on which perched the 
gaping women and children. Around the village of 
huts ran a moat or ditch, which was guarded in time 
of war with the Sioux. Flags flew from the centre 
poles of each hut; but the flags were the scalps of 
enemies slain. In the centre of the village was a 
larger hut. This was the " medicine lodge," or council 
hall, of the chiefs, used only for ceremonies of religion 
and war and treaties of peace. Thither De la Verendrye 
was conducted. Here the Mandan chiefs sat on 
bufi^alo robes in a circle round the fire, smoking the 
calumet, which was handed to the white man. The 
explorer then told the Indians of his search for the 
Western Sea. Of a Western Sea they could tell him 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 227 

nothing definite. They knew a people far west who 
grew corn and tobacco and who lived on the shores 
of water that was bitter for drinking. The people 
were white. They dressed in armor and lived in 
houses of stone. Their country was full of moun- 
tains. More of the Western Sea, De la Verendrye 
could not learn. 

Meanwhile, six hundred Assinibolne visitors were a 
tax on the hospitality of the Mandans, who at once 
spread a rumor of a Sioux raid. This gave speed to 
the Assiniboines' departure. Among the Assiniboines 
who ran off in precipitate fright was De la Verendrye's 
interpreter. It w-as useless to wait longer. The 
French were short of provisions, and the Missouri 
Indians could not be expected to support fifty white 
men. Though it was the bitter cold of midwinter, De 
la Verendrye departed for Fort de la Reine. Two 
Frenchmen were left to learn the Missouri dialects. 
A French flag in a leaden box with the arms of France 
inscribed was presented to the Mandan chief; and De la 
Verendrye marched from the village on the 8th of 
December. Scarcely had he left, when he fell terribly 
ill ; but for the pathfinder of the wilderness there is 
neither halt nor retreat. M. de la Verendrye's ragged 
army tramped wearily on, half blinded by snow glare 
and buffeted by prairie blizzards, huddling in snow- 
drifts from the wind at night and uncertain of their 



228 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 



compass over the white wastes by day. There is 
nothing so deadly silent and utterly destitute of life as 
the prairie in midwinter. Moose and buffalo had 
sought the shelter of wooded ravines. Here a fox 
track ran over the snow. There a coyote skulked 
from cover, to lope away the next instant for brush- 
wood or hollow, and snow- 
buntings or whiskey-jacks 
might have followed the 
marchers for pickings of 
waste ; but east, west, 
north, and south was noth- 
ing but the wide, white 
wastes of drifted snow. 
On Christmas Eve of 1 73 8 
low curling smoke above 
the prairie told the wan- 
derers that they were near- 
ing the Indian camps of 
the Assiniboines; and by 
nightfall of February 10, 1739, they were under the 
shelter of Fort de la Reine. " I have never been so 
wretched from illness and fatigue in all my life as on 
that journey," reported De la Verendrye. As usual, 
provisions were scarce at the fort. Fifty people had 
to be fed. Buffalo and deer meat saved the French 
from starvation till spring. 




A Monarch of the Plains. 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 229 

All that De la Verendrye had accomplished on this 
trip was to learn that salt water existed west-south- 
west. Anxious to know more of the Northwest, he 
sent his sons to the banks of a great northern river. 
This was the Saskatchewan. In their search of the 
Northwest, they constructed two more trading posts. 
Fort Dauphin near Lake Manitoba, and Bourbon on 
the Saskatchewan. Winter quarters were built at the 
forks of the river, which afterwards became the site of 
Fort Poskoyac. This spring not a canoe load of food 
came up from Montreal. Papers had been served for 
the seizure of all De la Verendrye's forts, goods, prop- 
erty, and chattels to meet the claims of his creditors. 
Desperate, but not deterred from his quest, De la Veren- 
drye set out to contest the lawsuits in Montreal. 



1740-1750 

W^hich way to turn now for the Western Sea that 
eluded their quest like a will-o'-the-wisp was the 
question confronting Pierre, Fran9ois, and Louis de 
la Verendrye during the explorer's absence in Mont- 
real. Thev had followed the great Saskatchewan 
westward to its forks. No river was found in this 
region flowing in the direction of the Western Sea. 
They had been in the country of the Missouri ; but 



230 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

neither did any river there flow to a Western Sea. 
Yet the Mandans told of salt water far to the west. 
Thither they would turn the baffling search. 

The two men left among the Mandans to learn the 
language had returned to the Assiniboine River with 
more news of tribes from " the setting sun " who 
dwelt on salt water. Pierre de la Verendrye went down 
to the Missouri with the two interpreters ; but the 
Mandans refused to supply guides that year, and the 
young Frenchman came back to winter on the Assini- 
boine. Here he made every preparation for another 
attempt to find the Western Sea by way of the 
Missouri. On April 29, 1742, the two brothers, 
Pierre and Fran9ois, left the Assiniboine with the two 
interpreters. Their course led along the trail that for 
two hundred years was to be a famous highway between 
the Missouri and Hudson Bay. Heading southwest, 
they followed the Souris River to the watershed of 
the Missouri, and in three weeks were once more the 
guests of the smoky Mandan lodges. Round the 
inside walls of each circular hut ran berth beds of buf- 
falo skin with trophies of the chase, — hide-shields and 
weapons of war, fastened to the posts that separated 
berth from berth. A common fire, with a family meat 
pot hanging above, occupied the centre of the lodge. 
In one of these lodges the two brothers and their men 
were quartered. The summer passed feasting with the 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 231 

Mandans and smoking the calumet of peace; but all 
was in vain. The Missouri Indians were arrant 
cowards in the matter of war. The terror of their 
existence was the Sioux. The Mandans would not 
venture through Sioux territory to accompany the 
brothers in the search for the Western Sea. At last 




Fur Traders' Boats tov.'e_ 



two guides were obtained, who promised to conduct the 
French to a neighboring tribe that might know of the 
Western Sea. 

The party set out on horseback, travelling swiftly 
southwest and along the valley of the Little Missouri 
toward the Black Hills. Here their course turned 
sharply west toward the Powder River country, past 



232 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

the southern bounds of the Yellowstone. For three 
weeks they saw no sign of human existence. Deer 
and antelope bounded over the parched alkali uplands. 
Prairie dogs perched on top of their earth mounds, to 
watch the lonely riders pass ; and all night the far 
howl of grayish forms on the offing of the starlit 
prairie told of prowling coyotes. On the nth of 
August the brothers camped on the Powder Hills. 
Mounting to the crest of a cliff, they scanned far and 
wide for signs of the Indians whom the Mandans 
knew. The valleys were desolate. Kindling a signal- 
fire to attract any tribes that might be roaming, they 
built a hut and waited. A month passed. There was 
no answering signal. One of the Mandan guides 
took himself off in fright. On the fifth week a thin 
line of smoke rose against the distant sky. The 
remaining Mandans went to reconnoitre and found a 
camp of Beaux Hommes, or Crows, who received the 
French well. Obtaining fresh guides from the Crows 
and dismissing the Mandans, the brothers again 
headed westward. The Crows guided them to the 
Horse Indians, who in turn took the French to their 
next western neighbors, the Bows. The Bows were 
preparing to war on the Snakes, a mountain tribe to the 
west. Tepees dotted the valley. Women were pound- 
ing the buffalo meat into pemmican for the raiders. 
The young braves spent the night with war-song and 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 233 

war-dance, to work themselves into a frenzy of bravado. 
The Bows were to march west ; so the French joined 
the warriors, gradually turning northwest toward 
what is now Helena. 

It was winter. The hills were powdered with snow 
that obliterated all traces of the fleeing Snakes, The 
way became more mountainous and dangerous. Iced 
sloughs gave place to swift torrents and cataracts. On 
New Year's day, 1743, there rose through the gray 
haze to the fore the ragged sky-line of the Bighorn 
Mountains. Women and children were now left in a 
sheltered valley, the warriors advancing unimpeded. 
Fran9ois de la Verendrye remained at the camp to 
guard the baggage. Pierre went on with the raiders. 
In two weeks they were at the foot of the main 
range of the northern Rockies. Against the sky the 
snowy heights rose — an impassable barrier between 
the plains and the Western Sea. What lay beyond — 
the Beyond that had been luring them on and on, 
from river to river and land to land, for more than 
ten years ? Surely on the other side of those lofty 
summits one might look down on the long-sought 
Western Sea. Never suspecting that another thou- 
sand miles of wilderness and mountain fastness lay 
between him and his quest, young De la Verendrye 
wanted to cross the Great Divide. Destiny decreed 
otherwise. The raid of the Bows against the Snakes 



234 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

ended in a fiasco. No Snakes were to be found at 
their usual winter hunt. Had they decamped to mas- 
sacre the Bow women and children left in the valley 
to the rear ? The Bows fled back to their wives in a 
panic; so De la Verendrye could not climb the moun- 
tains that barred the way to the sea. The retreat was 
made in the teeth of a howling mountain blizzard, 
and the warriors reached the rendezvous more dead 
than alive. No Snake Indians were seen at all. The 
Bows marched homeward along the valley of the Upper 
Missouri through the country of the Sioux, with whom 
they were allied. On the banks of the river the 
brothers buried a leaden plate with the royal arms 
of France imprinted. At the end of July, 1743, they 
were once more back on the Assiniboine River. For 
thirteen years they had followed a hopeless quest. 
Instead of a Western Sea, they had found a sea of 
prairie, a sea of mountains, and two great rivers, the 
Saskatchewan and the Missouri. 

VI 

1743-1750 

But the explorer, who had done so much to extend 
French domain in the West, was a ruined man. To 
the accusations of his creditors were added the jealous 
calumnies of fur traders eager to exploit the new 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 235 

country. The eldest son, with tireless energy, had 
gone up the Saskatchewan to Fort Poskoyac when he 
was recalled to take a position in the army at Mont- 
real. In 1746 De la Verendrye himself was summoned 
to Quebec and his command given to M. de Noyelles. 
The game being played by jealous rivals was plain. 
De la Verendrye was to be kept out of the West while 
tools of the Quebec traders spied out the fur trade 
of the Assiniboine and the Missouri. Immediately on 
receiving freedom from military duty, young Chevalier 
de la Verendrye set out for Manitoba. On the way 
he met his father's successor, M. de Noyelles, coming 
home crestfallen. The supplanter had failed to con- 
trol the Indians. In one year half the forts of the 
chain leading to the Western Sea had been destroyed. 
These Chevalier de la Verendrye restored as he passed 
westward. 

Governor Beauharnois had alwavs refused to believe 
the charges of private peculation against M. de la 
Verendrye. Governor de la Galissonniere was equally 
favorable to the explorer ; and De la Verendrye was 
decorated with the Order of the Cross of St. Louis, 
and given permission to continue his explorations. 
The winter of 1749 was passed preparing supplies 
for the posts of the West ; but a life of hardship and 
disappointment had undermined the constitution of 
the dauntless pathfinder. On the 6th of December, 



236 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

while busy with plans for his hazardous and thankless 
quest, he died suddenly at Montreal. 

Rival fur traders scrambled for the spoils of the 
Manitoba and Missouri territory like dogs for a bone. 
De la Jonquiere had become governor. Allied with 
him was the infamous Bigot, the intendant, and those 
two saw in the Western fur trade an opportunity to 




"Tepees dotted the valley." 

enrich themselves. The rights of De la Verendrye's 
sons to succeed their father were entirely disregarded. 
Legardeur de Saint-Pierre was appointed commander 
of the Western Sea. The very goods forwarded by 
De la Verendrye were confiscated. 

But Saint-Pierre had enough trouble from his ap- 
pointment. His lieutenant, M. de Niverville, almost 
lost his life among hostiles on the way down the 



SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA 237 

Saskatchewan after building Fort Lajonquiere at the 
foothills of the Rockies, where Calgary now stands. 
Saint- Pierre had headquarters in Manitoba on the 
Assiniboine, and one afternoon in midwinter, when 
his men were out hunting, he saw his fort suddenly 
fill with armed Assiniboines bent on massacre. They 
jostled him aside, broke into the armory, and helped 
themselves to weapons. Saint-Pierre had only one 
recourse. Seizing a firebrand, he tore the cover off 
a keg of powder and threatened to blow the Indians 
to perdition. The marauders dashed from the fort, 
and Saint-Pierre shot the bolts of gate and sally- 
port. When the white hunters returned, they quickly 
gathered their possessions together and abandoned 
Fort de la Reine. Four days later the fort lay in 
ashes. So ended the dream of enthusiasts to find a 
way overland to the Western Sea. 



PART III 

1 769-1 782 

SEARCH FOR THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE LEADS 
SAMUEL HEARNE TO THE ARCTIC CIRCLE AND 
ATHABASCA REGION 



CHAPTER IX 

1769-1782 

SAMUEL HEARNE 

The Adventures of Hearne in his Search for the Coppermine River and 
the Northwest Passage — Hilarious Life of Wassail led by Gov- 
ernor Norton — The Massacre of the Eskimo by Hearne' s Indians 
North of the Arctic Circle — Discovery of the Athabasca Country 
— Hearne becomes Resident Governor of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, but is captured by the French — Frightful Death of Norton 
and Suicide of Matonabbee 

For a hundred years after receiving its charter to 
exploit the furs of the North, the Hudson's Bay 
Company slumbered on the edge of a frozen sea. 

Its fur posts were scattered round the desolate 
shores of the Northern bay like beads on a string ; 
but the languid Company never attempted to penetrate 
the unknown lands beyond the coast. It was un- 
necessary. The Indians came to the Company. The 
company did not need to go to the Indians. Just as 
surely as spring cleared the rivers of ice and set the 
unlocked torrents rushing to the sea, there floated 
down-stream Indian dugout and birch canoe, loaded 

R 241 



242 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 



with wealth of peltries for the fur posts of the English 
Company. So the English sat snugly secure inside 
their stockades, lords of the wilderness, and drove a 
thriving trade with folded hands. For a penny knife, 
they bought a beaver skin ; and 
the skin sold in Europe for two 
or three shillings. The trade of 
the old Company was not brisk ; 
but it paid. 

It was the prod of keen French 
traders that stirred the slumber- 
ing giant. In his search for the 
Western Sea, De la Verendrye 
had pushed west by way of the 
Great Lakes to the Missouri and 
the Rocky Mountains and the 
Saskatchewan. Henceforth, not 
so many furs came down-stream 
to the English Company on the 
bay. De la Verendrye had been 
followed by hosts of free-lances 
— coureurs and voyageurs — who 
spread through the wilderness 
to the Athabasca, intercepting 
the fleets of furs that formerly went to Hudson 
Bay. The English Company rubbed its eyes ; and 
rivals at home began to ask what had been done 




An Eskimo Belle. Note 
the apron of ermine 
and sable. 

from the Missouri 



SAMUEL HEARNE 243 

in return for the charter. France had never ceased 
seeking the mythical Western Sea that was sup- 
posed to lie just beyond the Mississippi; and when 
French buccaneers destroyed the English Company's 
forts on the bay, the English ambassador at Paris 
exacted such an enormous bill of damages that the 
Hudson Bay traders were enabled to build a stronger 
fortress up at Prince of Wales on the mouth of 
Churchill River than the French themselves pos- 
sessed at Quebec on the St. Lawrence. What — 
asked the rivals of the Company in London — had 
been done in return for such national protection ? 
France had discovered and explored a whole new world 
north of the Missouri. What had the English done? 
Where did the Western Sea of which Spain had pos- 
session in the South lie towards the North ? What 
lay between the Hudson Bay and that Western Sea? 
Was there a Northwest passage by water through this 
region to Asia? If not, was there an undiscovered 
world in the North, like Louisiana in the South ? 
There was talk of revoking the charter. Then the 
Company awakened from its long sleep with a mighty 
stir. 

The annual boats that came out to Hudson Bay in 
the summer of 1769 anchored on the offing, six miles 
from the gray walls of Fort Prince of Wales, and 
roared out a salute of cannon becoming the importance 



244 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

of ships that bore almost revolutionary commissions. 
The fort cannon on the walls of Churchill River 
thundered their answer. A pinnace came scudding 
over the waves from the ships. A gig boat launched 
out from the fort to welcome the messengers. Where 
the two met halfway, packets of letters were handed 
to Moses Norton, governor at Fort Prince of 
Wales, commanding him to despatch his most in- 
trepid explorers for the discovery of unknown rivers, 
strange lands, rumored copper mines, and the mythical 
Northwest Passage that was supposed to lead directly 
to China. 

The fort lay on a spit of sand running out into the 
bay at the mouth of Churchill River. It was three 
hundred yards long by three hundred yards wide, 
with four bastions, in three of which were stores and 
wells of water. The fourth bastion contained the 
powder-magazine. The walls were thirty feet wide at 
the bottom and twenty feet wide at the top, of ham- 
mer-dressed stone, mounted with forty great cannon. 
A commodious stone house, furnished with all the 
luxuries of the chase, stood in the centre of the court- 
yard. This was the residence of the governor. 
Offices, warehouses, barracks, and hunters' lodges were 
banked round the inner walls of the fort. The garri- 
son consisted of thirty-nine common soldiers and a 
few officers. In addition, there hung about the fort 



SAMUEL HEARNE 245 

the usual habitues of a Northern fur post, — young 
clerks from England, who had come out for a year's 
experience in the wilds ; underpaid artisans, striving 
to mend their fortunes by illicit trade ; hunters and 
coureurs and voyageurSy living like Indians but with 
a strain of white blood that forever distinguished them 
from their comrades; stately Indian sachems, stalk- 
ing about the fort with whiffs ot contempt from their 
long calumets for all this white-man luxury ; and a 
ragamuffin brigade, — squaws, youngsters, and beg- 
gars, — who subsisted by picking up food from the 
waste heap of the fort. 

The commission to despatch explorers to the inland 
country proved the sensation of a century at the fort. 
Round the long mess-room table gathered officers and 
traders, intent on the birch-bark maps drawn by old 
Indian chiefs of an unknown interior, where a " Far- 
Off-Metal River" flowed down to the Northwest 
Passage. Huge log fires blazed on the stone hearths 
at each end of the mess room. Smoky lanterns and 
pine fligots, dipped in tallow and stuck in iron 
clamps, shed a fitful light from rafters that girded 
ceiling and walls. On the floor of flagstones lay 
enormous skins of the chase — polar bear, Arctic wolf, 
and grizzly. Heads of musk-ox, caribou, and deer 
decorated the great timber girders. Draped across 
the walls were Company flags — an English ensign 



246 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

with the letters " H. B. C." painted in white on a red 
background, or in red on a white background. 

At the head of the table sat one of the most remark- 
able scoundrels known in the annals of the Company, 
Moses Norton, governor of Fort Prince of Wales, a 
full-blooded Indian, who had been sent to England 
for nine years to be educated and had returned to the 
fort to resume all the vices and none of the virtues of 
white man and red. Clean-skinned, copper-colored, 
lithe and wiry as a tiger cat, with the long, lank, oily 
black hair of his race, Norton bore himself with all 
the airs of a European princelet and dressed himself 
in the beaded buckskins of a savage. Before him the 
Indians cringed as before one of their demon gods, 
and on the same principle. Bad gods could do the 
Indians harm. Good gods wouldn't. Therefore, 
the Indians propitiated the bad gods ; and of all 
Indian demons Norton was the worst. The black 
arts of mediaeval poisoning were known to him, and 
he never scrupled to use them against an enemy. 
The Indians thought him possessed of the power of 
the evil eye ; but his power was that of arsenic or 
laudanum dropped in the food of an unsuspecting 
enemy. Two of his wives, with all of whom he was 
inordinately jealous, had died of poison. Against 
white men who might offend him he used more open 
means, — the triangle, the whipping post, the branding 



SAMUEL HEARNE 247 

iron. Needless to say that a man who wielded such 
power swelled the Company's profits and stood high 
in favor with the directors. At his right hand lay an 
enormous bunch ot keys. These he carried with him 
by day and kept under his pillow by night. They 
were the keys to the apartments of his many wives, 
for like all Indians Norton believed in a plurality of 
wives, and the life of no Indian was safe who refused 
to contribute a daughter to the harem. The two 
master passions of the governor were jealousy and 
tyrannv ; and while he lived like a Turkish despot 
himselt, he ruled his fort with a rod of iron and left 
the brand of his wrath on the person of soldier or 
officer who offered indignity to the Indian race. It 
was a common thing for Norton to poison an Indian 
who refused to permit a daughter to join the collec- 
tion of wives ; then to Hog the back off a soldier who 
casually spoke to one of the wives in the courtyard; 
and in the evening spend the entire supper hour 
preaching sermons on virtue to his men. By a 
curious freak, Marie, his daughter, now a child of 
nine, inherited from her father the gentle qualities of 
the English life in which he had passed his youth. 
She shunned the native women and was often to be 
seen hanging on her father's arm, as officers and 
governor smoked their pipes over the mess-room 
table. 



248 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Near Norton sat another famous Indian, Matonab- 
bee, the son of a slave woman at the fort, who had 




Samuel Hearne. 

grown up to become a great ambassador to the native 
tribes for the EngHsh traders. Measuring more than 



SAMUEL HEARNE 249 

six feet, straight as a lance, supple as a wrestler, thin, 
wiry, alert, restless with the instinct of the wild 
creatures, Matonabbee was now in the prime of his 
manhood, chief of the Chipewyans at the fort, and 
master of life and death to all in his tribe. It was 
Matonabbee whom the English traders sent up the 
Saskatchewan to invite the tribes of the Athabasca 
down to the bay. The Athabascans listened to the 
message of peace with a treacherous smile. At mid- 
night assassins stole to his tent, overpowered his 
slave, and dragged the captive out. Leaping to his 
feet, Matonabbee shouted defiance, hurled his assail- 
ants aside like so many straws, pursued the raiders to 
their tents, single-handed released his slave, and 
marched out unscathed. That was the way Matonab- 
bee had won the Athabascans for the Hudson's Bay 
Company. 

Officers of the garrison, bluff sea-captains, spinning 
yarns of iceberg and floe, soldiers and traders, made 
up the rest of the company. Among the white men 
was one eager face, — that of Samuel Hearne, who was 
to explore the interior and now scanned the birch- 
bark drawings to learn the way to the "Far-off-Metal 
River." 

By November 6 all was in readiness for the 
departure of the explorer. Two Indian guides, who 
knew the way to the North, were assigned to Hearne; 



250 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

two European servants went with him to look after 
the provisions ; and two Indian hunters joined the 
company. In the gray mist of Northern dawn, with 
the stars still pricking through the frosty air, seven 
salutes of cannon awakened the echoes of the frozen 




Eskimo using Double-bladed Paddle. 



sea. The gates of the fort flung open, creaking with 
the frost rust, and Hearne came out, followed by his 
little company, the dog bells of the long toboggan 
sleighs setting up a merry jingling as the huskies 
broke from a trot to a gallop over the snow-fields 
for the North. Heading west-northwest, the band 



SAMUEL HEARNE 251 

travelled swiftly with all the enthusiasm of untested 
courage. North winds cut their faces like whip-lashes. 
The first night out there was not enough snow to 
make a wind-break of the drifts ; so the sleighs were 
piled on edge to windward, dogs and men lying 
heterogeneously in their shelter. When morning 
came, one of the Indian guides had deserted. The 
way became barer. Frozen swamps across which the 
storm wind swept with hurricane force were succeeded 
by high, rocky barrens devoid of game, unsheltered, 
with barely enough stunted shrubbery for the whit- 
tling of chips that cooked the morning and night 
meals. In a month the travellers had not accom- 
plished ten miles a day. Where deer were found 
the Indians halted to gorge themselves with feasts. 
Where game was scarce they lay in camp, depending 
on the white hunters. Within three weeks rations had 
dwindled to one partridge a day for the entire company. 
The Indians seemed to think that Hearne's white ser- 
vants had secret store of food on the sleighs. The 
savages refused to hunt. Then Hearne suspected 
some ulterior design. It was to drive him back to 
the fort by famine. Henceforth, he noticed on the 
march that the Indians always preceded the whites and 
secured any game before his men could fire a shot. 
One night toward the end of November the savages 
plundered the sleighs. Hearne awakened in amazement 



252 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

to see the company marching off, laden with guns, am- 
munition, and hatchets. He called. Their answer was 
laughter that set the woods ringing. Hearne was now 
two hundred miles from the fort, without either ammu- 
nition or food. There was nothing to do but turn 
back. The weather was fair. By snaring partridges, 
the white men obtained enough game to sustain them 
till they reached the fort on the iith of December. 

The question now was whether to wait till spring 
or set out in the teeth of midwinter. If Hearne left 
the fort in spring, he could not possibly reach the 
Arctic Circle till the following winter ; and with the 
North buried under drifts of snow, he could not learn 
where lay the Northwest Passage. If he left the 
fort in winter in order to reach the Arctic in summer, 
he must expose his guides to the risks of cold and 
starvation. The Indians told of high, rocky barrens, 
across which no canoes could be carried. They ad- 
vised snow-shoe travel. Obtaining three Chipewyans 
and two Crees as guides, and taking no white servants, 
Hearne once more set out, on February 23, 1770, 
for the " Far-Away-Metal River." This time there 
was no cannonading. The guns were buried under 
snow-drifts twenty feet deep, and the snow-shoes of 
the travellers glided over the fort walls to the echoing 
cheers of soldiers and governor standing on the ram- 
parts. The company travelled light, depending on 



SAMUEL HEARNE 253 

chance game for food. All wood that could be used 
for fire lay hidden deep under snow. At wide inter- 
vals over the white wastes mushroom cones of snow 
told where a stunted tree projected the antlered 
branches of topmost bough through the depths of 
drift ; but for the most part camp was made by dig- 
ging through the shallowest snow with snow-shoes to 
the bottom of moss, which served the double purpose 
of fuel for the night kettle and bed for travellers. In 
the hollow a wigwam was erected, with the door to the 
south, away from the north wind. Snared rabbits and 
partridges supplied the food. The way lay as before — 
west-northwest — along a chain of frozen lakes and 
rivers connecting Hudson Bay with the Arctic Ocean. 
By April the marchers were on the margin of a desolate 
wilderness — the Indian region of "Little Sticks," — 
known to white men as the Barren Lands, where 
dwarf trees project above the billowing wastes of snow 
like dismantled masts on the far offing of a lonely sea. 
Game became scarcer. Neither the round footprint 
of the hare nor the frost tracery of the northern grouse 
marked the snowy reaches of unbroken white. Cari- 
bou had retreated to the sheltered woods of the inte- 
rior ; and a cleverer hunter than man had scoured the 
wide wastes of game. Only the wolf pack roamed the 
Barren Lands. It was unsafe to go on without food. 
Hearne kept in camp till the coming ot the goose month 



254 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

— April — when birds of passage wended their way- 
north. For three days rations consisted of snow water 
and pipes of tobacco. The Indians endured the pri- 
vations with stoical indifference, daily marching out on 
a bootless quest for game. On the third night 
Hearne was alone in his tent. Twilight deepened to 
night, night to morning. Still no hunters returned. 
Had he been deserted ? Not a sound broke the 
waste silence but the baying of the wolf pack. Weak 
from hunger, Hearne fell asleep. Before daylight he 
was awakened by a shout ; and his Indians shambled 
over the drifts laden with haunches of half a dozen 
deer. That relieved want till the coming of the geese. 
In May Hearne struck across the Barren Lands. 
By June the rotting snow clogged the snow-shoes. 
Dog trains drew heavy, and food was again scarce. 
For a week the travellers found nothing to eat but 
cranberries. Half the company was ill from hunger 
when a mangy old musk-ox, shedding his fur and lean 
as barrel hoops, came scrambling over the rocks, sure 
of foot as a mountain goat. A single shot brought 
him down. In spite of the musky odor of which the 
coarse flesh reeked, every morsel of the ox was in- 
stantly devoured. Sometimes during their long fasts 
they would encounter a solitary Indian wandering over 
the rocky barren. If he had arms, gun, or arrow, 
and carried skins of the chase, he was welcomed to 



SAMUEL HEARNE 



^SS 



camp, no matter how scant the fare. Otherwise he 
was shunned as an outcast, never to be touched or 
addressed by a human being; for only one thing 
could have fed an Indian on the Barren Lands who 
could show no trophies of the chase, and that was the 
flesh of some human creature weaker than himself. 
The outcast was a cannibal, condemned by an un- 
written law to wander alone through the wastes. 

Snow had barely cleared from the Barren Lands 
when Hearne witnessed the great traverse of the 
caribou herds, marching in countless multitudes with 
a clicking of horns and hoofs from west to east for the 
summer. Indians from all parts of the North had 
placed themselves at rivers across the line of march to 
spear the caribou as they swam ; and Hearne was joined 
by a company of six hundred savages. Summer had 
dried the moss. That gave abundance of fuel. Cari- 
bou were plentiful. That supplied the hunters with 
pemmican. Hearne decided to pass the following 
winter with the Indians; but he was one white man 
among hundreds of savages. Nightly his ammunition 
was plundered. One of his survey instruments was 
broken in a wind storm. Others were stolen. It 
was useless to go on without instruments to take 
observations of the Arctic Circle ; so for a second 
time Hearne was compelled to turn back to Fort 
Prince of Wales. Terrible storms impeded the return 



256 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

march. His dog was frozen in the traces. Tent 
poles were used for fire-wood ; and the northern 
lights served as the only compass. On midday of 
November 25, 1770, after eight months' absence, in 
which he had not found the " Far-Off-Metal River," 
Hearne reached shelter inside the fort walls. 

Beating through the gales of sleet and snow on the 
homeward march, Hearne had careened into a majestic 
figure half shrouded by the storm. The explorer 
halted before a fur-mufiled form, six feet in its mocca- 
sins, erect as a mast pole, haughty as a king ; and the 
gauntleted hand of the Indian chief went up to his 
forehead in sign of peace. It was Matonabbee, the 
ambassador of the Hudson's Bay Company to the 
Athabascans, now returning to Fort Prince of Wales, 
followed by a long line of slave women driving their dog 
sleighs. The two travellers hailed each other through 
the storm like ships at sea. That night they camped 
together on the lee side of the dog sleighs, piled high 
as a wind-break ; and Matonabbee, the famous courser 
of the Northern wastes, gave Hearne wise advice. 
Women should be taken on a long journey, the Indian 
chief said ; for travel must be swift through the deadly 
cold of the barrens. Men must travel light of hand, 
trusting to chance game for food. Women were needed 
to snare rabbits, catch partridges, bring in game shot 
by the braves, and attend to the camping. And then 



SAMUEL HEARNE 257 

in a buist of enthusiasm, perhaps warmed by Hearne's 
fine tobacco, Matonabbee, who had found the way to 
the Athabasca, offered to conduct the white man to 
the " Far-Off-Metal River " of the Arctic Circle. The 
chief was the greatest pathfinder of the Northern tribes. 
His offer was the chance of a lifetime. Hearne could 
hardly restrain his eagerness till he reached the fort. 
Leaving Matonabbee to follow with the slave women, 
the explorer hurried to Fort Prince of Wales, laid the 
plan before Governor Norton, and in less than two 
weeks from the day of his return was ready to depart 
for the unknown river that was to lead to the North- 
west Passage. 

The weather was dazzlingly clear, with that burnished 
brightness of polished steel known only where unbroken 
sunlight meets unbroken snow glare. On the 7th of 
December, 1770, Hearne left the fort, led by Matonab- 
bee and followed by the slave Indians with the dog 
sleighs. One of Matonabbee's wives lay ill ; but that 
did not hinder the iron pathfinder. The woman was 
wrapped in robes and drawn on a dog sleigh. There 
was neither pause nor hesitation. If the woman re- 
covered, good. If she died, they would bury her 
under a cairn of stones as they travelled. Matonabbee 
struck directly west-northwest for some caches of pro- 
visions which he had left hidden on the trail. The 
place was found ; but the caches had been rifled clean 
s 



258 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

of food. That did not stop Matonabbee. Nor did 
he show the shghtest symptoms of anger. He shnply 
hastened their pace the more for their hunger, recog- 
nizing the unwritten law of the wilderness — that starv- 
ing hunters who had rifled the cache had a right to food 
wherever they found it. Day after day, stoical as men 
of bronze, the marchers reeled off the long white miles 
over the snowy wastes, pausing only for night sleep 
with evening and morning meals. Here nibbled twigs 
were found ; there the stamping ground of a deer shel- 
ter ; elsewhere the small, cleft foot-mark like the ace 
of hearts. But the signs were all old. No deer were 
seen. Even the black marble eye that betrays the 
white hare on the snow, and the fluffy bird track of 
the feather-footed northern grouse, grew rarer ; and 
the slave women came in every morning empty-handed 
from untouched snares. In spite of hunger and cold, 
Matonabbee remained good-natured, imperturbable, 
hard as a man of bronze, coursing with the winged speed 
of snow-shoes from morning till night without pause, 
going to a bed of rock moss on a meal of snow water 
and rising eager as an arrow to leave the bow-string for 
the next day's march. For three days before Christmas 
the entire company had no food but snow. Christmas 
was celebrated by starvation. Hearne could not in- 
dulge in the despair of the civilized man's self-pity 
when his faithful guides went on without complaint. 




Eskimo Family, taken by Light of Midnight Sun. — C. W. Mathers. 



SAMUEL HEARNE 259 

By January the company had entered the Barren 
Lands. The Barren Lands were bare but tor an oc- 
casional oasis of trees like an island ot refuge in a 
shelterless sea. In the clumps ot dwarf shrubs, the 
Indians found signs that meant relief from famine — 
tufts ot hair rubbed off on tree trunks, fallen antlers, 
and countless heart-shaped tracks barely puncturing 
the snow but for the sharp outer edge. The caribou 
were on their yearly traverse east to west for the shel- 
ter of the inland woods. The Indians at once pitched 
camp. Scouts w'ent scouring to find which way the 
caribou herds were coming. Pounds of snares were 
constructed of shrubs and saplings stuck up in pali- 
sades with scarecrows on the pickets round a V-shaped 
enclosure. The best hunters took their station at the 
angle of the V, armed with loaded muskets and long, 
lank, and iron-pointed arrows. Women and children 
lined the palisades to scare back high jumpers or strays 
of the caribou herd. Then scouts and dogs beat up the 
rear of the fleeing herd, driving the caribou straight for 
the pound. Bv a curious provision of nature, the male 
caribou sheds its antlers just as he leaves the Barren 
Lands for the wooded interior, where the horns would 
impede flight through brush, and he only leaves the 
woods for the bare open when the horns are grown 
enough to fight the annual battle to protect the herd 
trom the wolf pack ravenous with spring hunger. 



i6o PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

For one caribou caught in the pound by Hearne's 
Indians, a hundred of the herd escaped; for the cari- 
bou crossed the Barrens in tens of thousands, and 
Matonabbee's braves obtained enough venison for the 
trip to the " Far-Off-Metal River." 

The farther north they travelled the scanter became 
the growth of pine and poplar and willow. Snow still 
lay heavy in April ; but Matonabbee ordered a halt 
while there was still large enough wood to construct 
dugouts to carry provisions down the river. The 
boats were built large and heavy in front, light behind. 
This was to resist the ice jam of Northern currents. 
The caribou hunt had brought other Indians to the 
Barren Lands. Matonabbee was joined by two hundred 
warriors. Though the tribes puffed the calumet of 
peace together, they drew their war hatchets when they 
saw the smoke of an alien tribe's fire rise against the 
northern sky. A suspicion that he hardly dared to 
acknowledge flashed through Hearne's mind. Eleven 
thousand beaver pelts were yearly brought down to the 
fort from the unknown river. How did the Chipe- 
wyans obtain these pelts from the Eskimo ? What was 
the real reason of the Indian eagerness to conduct 
the white man to the " Far-Off-Metal River " ? The 
white man was not taken into the confidence of the 
Indian council; but he could not fail to draw his own 
conclusions. 



SAMUEL HEARNE 261 

Scouts were sent cautiously forward to trail the path 
of the aliens who had lighted the far moss fire. Women 
and children were ordered to head about for a rendez- 
vous southwest on Lake Athabasca. Carrying only 
the lightest supplies, the braves set out swiftly for the 
North on June i. Mist and rain hung so heavily 
over the desolate moors that the travellers could not 
see twenty feet ahead. In places the rocks were 
glazed with ice and scored with runnels of water. 
Half the warriors here lost heart and turned back. 
The others led by Hearne and Matonabbee crossed 
the iced precipices on hands and knees, w^ith gun 
stocks strapped to backs or held in teeth. On the 
2ist of June the sun did not set. Hearne had crossed 
the Arctic Circle. The sun hung on the southern hori- 
zon all night long. Henceforth the travellers marched 
without tents. During rain or snow storm, they took 
refuge under rocks or in caves. Provisions turned 
mouldy with wet. The moss was too soaked for fire. 
Snow fell so heavily in drifting storms that Hearne 
often awakened in the morning to find himself almost 
immured in the cave w'here they had sought shelter. 
Ice lay solid on the lakes in July. Once, clambering 
up steep, bare heights, the travellers met a herd of a 
hundred musk-oxen scrambling over the rocks with 
the agilitv of squirrels, the spreading, agile hoof giving 
grip that lifted the hulking forms over all obstacles. 



262 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Down the bleak, bare heights there poured cataract and 
mountain torrent, plainly leading to some near river 
bed ; but the thick gray fog lay on the land like a 
blanket. At last a thunder-storm cleared the air ; and 
Hearne saw bleak moors sloping north, bare of all 
growth but the trunks of burnt trees, with barren 
heights of rock and vast, desolate swamps, where the 
wild-fowl flocked in myriads. 



:'fe 



■^^sSj, 




Fort Garry, Winnipeg, a Century Ago. 

All count of day and night was now lost, for the 
sun did not set. Sometime between midnight and 
morning of July 12, 1771, with the sun as bright 
as noon, the lakes converged to a single river-bed a 
hundred yards wide, narrowing to a waterfall that 
roared over the rocks in three cataracts. This, then, 
was the " Far-OfF- Metal River." Plainly, it was a dis- 
appointing discovery, this Coppermine River. It did 
not lead to China. It did not point the way to a 



SAMUEL HEARNE 263 

Northwest Passage. In his disappointment, Hearne 
learned what every other discoverer in North America 
had learned — that the Great Northwest was some- 
thing more than a bridge between Europe and Asia, 
that it was a world in itself with its own destiny.' 

But Hearne had no time to brood over disappoint- 
ment. The conduct of his rascally companions could 
no longer be misunderstood. Hunters came in with 
game ; but when the hungry slaves would have lighted 
a moss fire to cook the meat, the forbidding hand of a 
chief went up. No fires were to be lighted. The 
Indians advanced with whispers, dodging from stone 
to stone like raiders in ambush. Spies went forward 
on tiptoe. Then far down-stream below the cataracts 
Hearne descried the domed tent-tops of an Eskimo 
band sound asleep ; for it was midnight, though the 
sun was at high noon. When Hearne looked back to 
his companions, he found himself deserted. The 
Indians were already wading the river for the west bank, 
where the Eskimo had camped. Hearne overtook his 
guides stripping themselves of everything that might 
impede flight or give hand-hold to an enemy, and 
daubing their skin with war-paint. Hearne begged 
Matonabbee to restrain the murderous warriors. The 
great chief smiled with silent contempt. He was too 

^ I have purposely avoided bringing up the dispute as to a mistake of some few 
degrees made by Hearne in his calculations — the point really being finical. 



264 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

true a disciple of a doctrine which Indians practised 
hundreds of years before white men had avowed it — 
the survival of the fit, the extermination of the weak, 
for any qualms of pity towards a victim whose death 
would contribute profit. Wearing only moccasins and 
bucklers of hardened hide, armed with muskets, lances, 
and tomahawks, the Indians jostled Hearne out of their 
way, stole forward from stone to stone to within a gun 
length of the Eskimo, then with a wild war shout flung 
themselves on the unsuspecting sleepers. 

The Eskimo were taken unprepared. They stag- 
gered from their tents, still dazed in sleep, to be mowed 
down by a crashing of firearms which they had never 
before heard. The poor creatures fled in frantic terror, 
to be met only by lance point and gun butt. A young 
girl fell coiling at Hearne's feet like a wounded snake. 
A well-aimed lance had pinioned the living form to 
earth. She caught Hearne round the knees, imploring 
him with dumb entreaty ; but the white man was 
pushed back with jeers. Sobbing with horror, Hearne 
begged the Indians to put their victim out of pain. 
The rocks rang with the mockery of the torturers. 
She was speared to death before Hearne's eyes. On 
that scene of indescribable horror the white man could 
no longer bear to look. He turned toward the 
river, and there was a spectacle like a nightmare. 
Some of the Eskimo were escaping by leaping to 



SAMUEL HEARNE 265 

their hide boats and with lightning strokes of the double- 
bladed paddies dashing down the current to the far bank 
of the river ; but sitting motionless as stone was an 
old, old woman — probably a witch of the tribe — 
red-eyed as if she were blind, deaf to all the noise 
about her, unconscious of all her danger, fishing for 
salmon below the falls. There was a shout from the 
raiders ; the old woman did not even look up to 
face her fate ; and she too fell a victim to that thirst 
for blood which is as insatiable in the redskin as in the 
wolf pack. Odd commentary in our modern philoso- 
phies — this white-man explorer, unnerved, unmanned, 
weeping with pity, this champion of the weak, jostled 
aside by bloodthirsty, triumphant savages, represented 
the race that was to jostle the Indian from the face of 
the New World. Something more than a triumphant, 
aggressive Strength was needed to the permanency of 
a race ; and that something more was represented by 
poor, weak, vacillating Hearne, weeping like a woman. 
Horror of the massacre robbed Hearne of all an 
explorer's exultation. A day afterward, on July 17, 
he stood on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, — 
the first white man to reach it overland in America. 
Ice extended from the mouth of the river as far as eye 
could see. Not a sign of land broke the endless 
reaches of cold steel, where the snow lay, and icy 
green, where pools of the ocean cast their reflection on 



266 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 



the sky of the far horizon. At one in the morning, 
with the sun hanging above the river to the south, 
Hearne formally took possession of the Arctic re- 






H.Of^^g^ -> 

(r. tA'^iai/d/}V^ to d^/ind the^^ate^.^ 
OFWALES'sFOBT. ^^f^ 




Th( On'p<nalP^ans RavifiaHwrn 4^The^. hit i/ze Oor. it'cts 
■nire tiiatQsFf-e^ wmiMdo very weU,Iiyaf order'd tfia'eftn-e tx> lay 
tlie Fcnmdation 25l-'bett/iuk ^e,/ HI. TC. Wfun flie Cizjinon tt^as t^yd- 
th^^rofi oft^i^WnU<foX,/wa^/utiCddowrt bfJiiulttifi a/^cont^nato 
t^u/irj'tJ'larhB.X.and'KrKTtd^nevet- 



Scale 114 Eeet in oue liicl 



From Robson's Drawing, 1733—47. 



SAMUEL HEARNE 267 

gions for the Hudson's Bay Company. The same 
Company rules those regions to-day. Not an eye had 
been closed for three days and nights. Throwing 
themselves down on the wet shore, the entire band 
now slept for six hours. The hunters awakened to 
find a musk-ox nosing over the mossed rocks. A 
shot sent it tumbling over the cliffs. Whether it was 
that the moss was too wet for fuel to cook the meat, 
or the massacre had brutalized the men into beasts of 
prey, the Indians fell on the carcass and devoured it 
raw.^ 

The retreat from the Arctic was made with all 
swiftness, keeping close to the Coppermine River. 
For thirty miles from the sea not a tree was to be 
seen. The river was sinuous and narrow, hemmed in 
by walls of solid rock, down which streamed cascades 
and mountain torrents. On both sides of the high 
bank extended endless reaches of swamps and barrens. 
Twenty miles from the sea Hearne found the copper 
mines from which the Indians made their weapons. 
His guides were to join their families in the Athabasca 
countrv of the southwest, and thither Matonabbee now 



1 I am soiT)' to say that in pioneer border warfares I have heard of white men acting 
in a precisely similar beastly manner after some brutal conflict. To be frank, I know 
of one case in the early days of Minnesota fiir trade, where the irate fur trader killed 
and devoured his weak companion, not from famine, but sheer frenzy of brutalized 
passion. Such naked light does wilderness life shed over our drawing-room philosophies 
of the triumphantly strong being the highest t)'pe of manhood. 



268 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

led the way at such a terrible pace that moccasins were 
worn to shreds and toe-nails torn from the feet of the 
marchers ; and woe to the man who fell behind, for 
the wolf pack prowled on the rear. 

When the smoke of moss fires told of the wives' 
camp, the Indians halted to take the sweat bath of 
purification for the cleansing of all blood guilt from 
the massacre. Heated stones were thrown into a 
small pool. In this each Indian bathed himself, 
invoking his deity for freedom from all punishment 
for the deaths of the slain.^ By August the Indians 
had joined their wives. By October they were on 
Lake Athabasca, which had already frozen. Here 
one of the wives, in the last stages of consumption, 
could go no farther. For a band short of food to 
halt on the march meant death to all. The Northern 
wilderness has its grim unwritten law, inexorable and 
merciless as death. For those who fall by the way there 
is no pity. A whole tribe may not be exposed to death 
for the sake of one person. Civilized nations follow 
the same principle in their quarantine. Giving the 
squaw food and a tent, the Indians left her to meet 
her last enemy, whether death came by starvation or 
cold or the wolf pack. Again and again the abandoned 

1 Again the wilderness plunges us back to the primordial : if man be but the supreme 
beast of prey, whence this consciousness of blood guilt in these unschooled children of 
the wilds ? 



SAMUEL HEARNE 269 

squaw came up with the marchers, weeping and beg- 
ing their pity, only to fall from weakness. But the 
ilderness has no pity; and so thev left her. 

Christmas of 1771 was passed on Athabasca Lake, 
the northern lights rustling overhead with the crackling 
of a flag. There was food in plenty ; for the Atha- 
basca was rich in buffalo meadows and beaver dams 
and moose yards. On the lake shore Hearne found 
a little cabin, in which dwelt a solitary woman of the 
Dog Rib tribe who for eight months had not seen a 
soul. Her band had been massacred. She alone 
escaped and had lived here in hiding for almost a 
year. In spring the Indians of the lake carried their 
furs to the forts of Hudson Bay. With the Athabas- 
cans went Hearne, reaching Fort Prince of Wales on 
June 30, 1772, after eighteen months' absence. 

He had discovered Coppermine River, the Arctic 
Ocean, and the Athabasca country, — a region in all 
as large as halt European Russia. 

For his achievements Hearne received prompt pro- 
motion. Within a year of his return to the fort. 
Governor Norton, the Indian bully, fell deadly ill. 
In the agonv of death throes, he called for his wives. 
The great keys to the apartments of the women were 
taken from his pillow, and the wives were brought in. 
Norton lay convulsed with pain. One of the younger 
women began to sob. An officer of the garrison took 



270 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

her hand to comfort her grief. Norton's rolHng eyes 
caught sight of the innocent conference between the 
officer and the young wife. With a roar the dying 
bully hurled himself up in bed : — 

" I'll burn you alive ! I'll burn you alive," he 
shrieked. With oaths on his lips he fell back dead. 




Fort Prince of Wales (Churchill), from Hearne's Account, 1799 Edition. 



Samuel Hearne became governor of the fort. For 
ten years nothing disturbed the calm of his rule. 
Marie, Norton's daughter, still lived in the shelter of 
the fort ; the wives found consolation in other hus- 
bands; and Matonabbee continued the ambassador of 
the company to strange tribes. One afternoon of 
August, 1782, the sleepy calm of the fort was upset by 



SAMUEL HEARNE 



271 



the sentry dashing in breathlessly with news that three 
great vessels of war with full-blown sails and carrying 
many guns were ploughing straight for Prince of 
Wales. At sundown the ships swung at anchor six 
miles from the fort. From their masts fluttered a 
foreign flag — the French ensign. Gig boat and pin- 
nace began sounding the harbor. Hearne had less 
than forty men to defend the fort. In the morning 
four hundred French troopers lined up on Churchill 





Beaver Coin of Hudson's Bay Company, melted from 
Old Tea Chests, one Coin representing one Beaver. 

River, and the admiral, La Perouse, sent a messenger 
with demand of surrender. Hearne did not feel justi- 
fied in exposing his men to the attack of three war- 
ships carrying from seventy to a hundred guns apiece, 
and to assault by land of four hundred troopers. He 
surrendered without a blow. 

The furs were quickly transferred to the French 
ships, and the soldiers were turned loose to loot the 
fort. The Indians fled, among them Moses Norton's 
gentle daughter, now in her twenty-second year. She 



272 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

could not revert to the loathsome habits of savage 
life ; she dared not go to the fort filled with lawless 
foreign soldiers ; and she perished of starvation out- 
side the walls. Matonabbee had been absent when the 
French came. He returned to find the fort where he 
had spent his life in ruins. The English whom he 
thought invincible were defeated and prisoners of war. 
Hearne, whom the dauntless old chief had led through 
untold perils, was a captive. Matonabbee's proud 
spirit was broken. The grief was greater than he 
could bear. All that living stood for had been lost. 
Drawing off from observation, Matonabbee blew his 
brains out. 



PART IV 

1780-1793 

FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES — HOW MACKENZIE 
CROSSED THE NORTHERN ROCKIES AND LEWIS 
AND CLARK WERE FIRST TO CROSS FROM MIS- 
SOURI TO COLUMBIA 



CHAPTER X 

1780-1793 
FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES 

How Mackenzie found the Great River named after him and then 
pushed across the Mountains to the Pacific, forever settling the 
question of a Northwest Passage 

There is an old saying that if a man has the right 
mettle in him, you may stick him a thousand leagues 
in the wilderness on a barren rock and he will plant 
pennies and grow dollar bills. In other words, no 
matter where or how, success will succeed. No class 
illustrates this better than a type that has almost 
passed away — the old tur traders who were lords of 
the wilderness. Cut off from all comfort, from all 
encouragement, from all restraint, what set of men 
ever had fewer incentives to go up, more temptations 
to go down ? Yet from the fur traders sprang the pio- 
neer heroes of America. When young Donald Smith 
came out — a raw lad — to America, he was packed off 
to eighteen years' exile on the desert coast of Labrador. 
Donald Smith came out of the wilderness to become 

275 



276 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 



the Lord Strathcona of to-day. Sir Alexander Mac- 
kenzie's life presents even more dramatic contrasts. 
A clerk in a counting-house at Montreal one year, 
the next finds him at Detroit setting out for the back- 
woods of Michigan to barter with Indians for furs. 

Then he is off with a fleet 
of canoes forty strong for 
the Upper Country of forest 
and wilderness beyond the 
Great Lakes, where he 
fights such a desperate 
battle with rivals that one 
of his companions is mur- 
dered, a second lamed, a 
third wounded. In all this 
Alexander Mackenzie was 
successful while still in the 
prime of his manhood, — 

Alexander Mackenzie, from a Paint- not more than thirty years 
in? of the Explorer, r. , , j r 

or age ; and the reward or 
his success was to be exiled to the sub-arctics of the 
Athabasca, six weeks' travel from another fur post, — 
not a likely field to play the hero. Yet Mackenzie 
emerged from the polar wilderness bearing a name 
that ranks with Columbus and Cartier and La Salle. 
Far north of the Missouri beyond the borderlands 
flows the Saskatchewan. As far north again, beyond 




FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES 277 

the Saskatchewan, flows another great river, the Atha-- 
basca, into Athabasca Lake, on whose blue shores 
to the north lies a little white-washed fort of some 
twenty log houses, large barn-like stores, a Catholic 
chapel, an Episcopal mission, and a biggish residence of 
pretence for the chief trader. This is h ]ort Chipew yan. 
At certain seasons Indian tepees dot the surrounding 
plains; and bronze-faced savages, clad in the ill-fitting 
garments of white people, shamble about the stores, 
or sit haunched round the shady sides of the log 
houses, smoking long-stemmed pipes. These are the 
Chipewyans come in from their hunting-grounds ; but 
for the most part the fort seems chiefly populated by 
regiments of husky dogs, shaggy-coated, with the sharp 
nose of the fox, which spend the long winters in harness 
coasting the white wilderness, and pass the summers 
basking lazily all day long except when the bell rings 
for fish time, when half a hundred huskies scramble 
wildly for the first meat thrown. 

A century ago Chipewyan was much the same as 
to-day, except that it lay on the south side of the lake. 
Mails came only once in two years instead of monthly, 
and rival traders were engaged in the merry game of 
slitting each other's throats. All together, it wasn't 
exactly the place for ambition to dream ; but ambition 
was there in the person of Alexander Mackenzie, the 
young fur trader, dreaming what he hardly dared hope. 



278 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Business men fight shy of dreamers ; so Mackenzie 
told his dreams to no one but his cousin Roderick, 
whom he pledged to secrecy. For fifty years the 




Eskimo trading his Pipe, carved from Walrus Tusk, for the Value of 
Three Beaver Skins. 

British government had offered a reward of ^20,000 
to any one who should discover a Northwest Passage 
between the Atlantic and the Pacific. The hope of 
such a passageway had led many navigators on boot- 



FIRST ACROSS I'HE ROCKIES 279 

less voyages ; and here was Mackenzie with the same 
bee in his bonnet. To the north of Chipewyan he 
saw a mighty river, more than a mile wide in places, 
walled in by great ramparts, and flowing to unknown 
seas. To the west he saw another river rolling 
through the far mountains. Where did this river 
come from, and where did both rivers go? Macken- 
zie was not the man to leave vital questions un- 
answered. He determined to find out; but difficulties 
lay in the way. He couldn't leave the Athabascan 
posts. That was overcome by getting his cousin 
Roderick to take charge. The Northwest Fur Com- 
pany, which had succeeded the French fur traders of 
Quebec and Montreal when Canada passed from the 
hands of the French to the English, wouldn't assume 
any cost or risk for exploring unknown seas. This 
was more niggardly than the Hudson's Bay Company, 
which had paid all cost of outlay for its explorers ; but 
Mackenzie assumed risk and cost himself. Then the 
Indians hesitated to act as guides; so Mackenzie hired 
guides when he could, seized them by compulsion 
when he couldn't hire them, and went ahead without 
guides when they escaped. 

May — the frog moon — and June — the bird's egg 
moon — were the festive seasons at Fort Chipewyan 
on Lake Athabasca. Indian hunters came tramping 
in from the Barren Lands with toboggan loads of pelts 



28o PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

drawn by half-wild husky dogs. Woody Crees and 
Slaves and Chipewyans paddled across the lake in canoes 
laden to the gunwales with furs. A world of white 
skin tepees sprang up like mushrooms round the 
fur post. By June the traders had collected the furs, 
sorted and shipped them in flotillas of keel boat, barge, 
and canoe, east to Lake Superior and Montreal. On 
the evening of June 2, 178Q, Alexander Mackenzie, 
chief trader, had finished the year's trade and sent the 
furs to the Eastern warehouses of the Northwest 
Company, on Lake Superior, at Fort William, not 
far from where Radisson had first explored, and La 
Verendrye followed. Indians lingered round the fort 
of the Northern lake engaged in mad boissons^ or 
drinking matches, that used up a winter's earnings 
in the spree of a single week. Along the shore lay 
upturned canoes, keels red against the blue of the lake, 
and everywhere in the dark burned the red fires of 
the boatmen melting resin to gum the seams of the 
canoes ; for the canoes were to be launched on a 
long voyage the next day. Mackenzie was going to 
float down with the current of the Athabasca or 
Grand R iyer, and find out where that great river 
emptied in the North. 

The crew must have spent the night in a last wild 
spree ; for it was nine in the morning before all hands 
were ready to embark. In, Mackenzie's large birch 



FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES 



281 



c;inoe went four Canadian voyageurs^ their Indian 
wives, and a German. In other canoes were the 
Indian hunters and interpreters, led by " EngUsh 
Chief," who had often been to Hudson Bay. /Few 
provisions were taken. The men were to hunt, the 
women to cook and keep the voyageurs supplied with 

moccasins, which wore j 1 

out at the rate of one 
pair a day for each man. 
Traders bound for Slave 
Lake followed behind. 1 
^Only fifty miles were ' 
made the first day. 
Henceforth Mackenzie 
embarked his men at 
three and four in the 
morning. 

The mouth of Peace 
River was passed a mile I 

broad as it pours down Quill and Bead Work on Buckskin, 
c ^\ ^ J ,1 Mackenzie River Indians. 

rrom the west, and the 

boatmen portaged six rapids the third dav, V>ne of the 
canoes, steered by a squaw more intent on her sewing 
than the paddles, going over the falls with a smash that 
shivered the bark to kindling-wood. The woman 
escaped, as the current caught the canoe, by leaping 
into the water and swimming ashore with the aid of a 




282 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

line. Ice four feet thick clung to the walls of the 
rampart shores, and this increased the danger of landing 
for 3. p 07' t age, the Indians whining out their complaints 
in exactly the tone of the wailing north wind that had 
cradled their lives — " Eduiy, eduiy ! — It is hard, white 
man, it is hard ! " And harder the way became. Vor 
nine nights fog lay so heavily on the river that not a star 
was seen. This was followed by driving rain and wind. 
Mackenzie hoisted a three-foot sail and cut over the 
water before the wind with the hiss of a boiling kettle. 
Though the sail did the work of the paddles, it gave 
the voyageurs no respite. Cramped and rain-soaked, 
they had to bail out water to keep the canoe afloat. 
In this fashion the boats entered Slaye Lake, a large 
body of water with one horn pointing west, the other 
east. Out of both horns led unknown rivers. Which 
way should Mackenzie go? Low-lying marshlands 
— beaver meadows where the wattled houses of the 
beaver had stopped up the current of streams till moss 
overgrew the swamps and the land became quaking 
muskeg — lay along the shores of the lake. There 
were islands in deep water, where caribou had taken 
refuge, travelling over ice in winter for the calves to 
be safe in summer from wolf pack and bear. Macken- 
zie hired a guide from the Slave Indians to pilot the 
canoes over the lake ; but the man proved useless. 
Days were wasted poking through mist and rushes 



FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES 283 

trying to find an outlet to the Grand River of the 
North. Finally, English Chief lost his temper and 
threatened to kill the Slave Indian unless he succeeded 
in taking the canoes out of the lake. The waters 
presently narrowed to half a mile ; the current began 
to race with a hiss ; sails were hoisted on fishing- 
poles ; and Mackenzie found himself out of the 




Fort William. Headquarters Northwest Company, Lake Superior. 

rushes on the Grand River to the west of Slave 
Lake. 

Here pause was made at a camp of Dog Ribs, who 
took the bottom from the courage of Mackenzie's 
comrades bv gruesome predictions that old age would 
come upon the voyageurs before they reached salt 
water. There were impassable falls ahead. The 
river flowed through a land of tamine peopled bv a 



284 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

monstrous race of hostiles who massacred all Indians 
from the South. The effect of these cheerful prophe- 
cies was that the Slave Lake guide refused to go on. 
English Chief bodily put the recalcitrant into a canoe 
and forced him ahead at the end of a paddle. Snow- 
capped mountains loomed to the west. The river 
from Bear Lake was passed, greenish of hue like the 
sea, and the Slave Lake guide now feigned such ill- 
ness that watch was kept day and night to prevent his 
escape. The river now began to wind, with lofty 
ramparts on each side ; and once, at a sharp bend in 
the current, Mackenzie looked back to see Slave Lake 
Indians following to aid the guide in escaping. After 
that one of the white men slept with the fellow each 
night to prevent desertion ; but during the confusion 
of a terrific thunder-storm, when tents and cooking 
utensils were hurled about their heads, the Slave 
succeeded in giving his watchers the slip. Mackenzie 
promptly stopped at an encampment of strange 
Indians, and failing to obtain another guide by persua- 
sion, seized and hoisted a protesting savage into the 
big canoe, and signalled the unwilling captive to point 
the way. The Indians of the river were indifferent, if 
not friendly ; but once Mackenzie discovered a band 
hiding their women and children as soon as the boat- 
men came in view. The unwilling guide was forced 
ashore, as interpreter, and gifts pacified all fear. But 



FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES 285 

the incident left its impression on Mackenzie's com- 
rades. They had now been away from Chipewyan 
for forj^y days. If it took much longer to go back, 
ice would imprison them in the polar wilderness. 
Snow lay drifted in the valleys, and scarcely any 
game was seen but fox and grouse. The river was 
widening almost to the dimensions ot a lake, and 
when this was whipped by a north wind the canoes 
were in peril enough. The four Canadians besought 
Mackenzie to return. To return Mackenzie had not 
the slightest intention ; but he would not tempt 
mutiny. He promised that if he did not find the 
sea within seven days, he would go back. 

That night the sun hung so high above the south- 
ern horizon that the men rose by mistake to embark 
at twelve o'clock. They did not realize that they 
were in the region of midnight sun ; but Mackenzie 
knew and rejoiced, for he must be near the sea. The 
next day he was not surprised to find a deserted 
Eskimo village. At that sight the enthusiasm of 
the others took fire. They were keen to reach the 
sea, and imagined that they smelt salt water. In spite 
of the lakelike expanse of the river, the current 
was swift, and the canoes went ahead at the rate of 
usixty and seventy miles a dav — it it could be called 
day when there was no night. Between the 13 th 
and 14th ot July the voyageurs suddenly awakened 



286 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

to find themselves and their baggage floating in rising 
water. What had happened to the lake ? Their 
hearts took a leap ; for it was no lake. It was the 
tide. They had found the sea. 

How hilariously jubilant were Mackenzie's men, 
one may guess from the fact that they chased whales 
all the next day in their canoes. The whales dived 
below, fortunately ; for one blow of a finback or sulphur 
bottom would have played skittles with the canoes. 
Coming back from the whale hunt, triumphant as if 
they had caught a dozen finbacks, the men erected a 
post, engraving on it the date, July 14, 1789, and the 
names of all present. 

4lt had taken six weeks to reach the Arctic. It 
took eight to return to Chipewyan, for the course 
was against stream, in many places tracking the canoes 
by a tow-line. The beaver meadows along the shore 
impeded the march. Many a time the quaking moss 
gave way, and the men sank to mid-waist in water. 
'While skirting close ashore, Mackenzie discovered 
the banks of the river to be on fire. The fire was a 
natural tar bed, which the Indians said had been burn- 
ing for centuries and which burns to-day as when 
Mackenzie found it. On September 12, with a 
high sail up and a driving wind, the canoes cut across 
Lake Athabasca and reached the .beach of Chipewyan 
at three in the afternoon, after one hundred and two 



1^ 




FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES 287 

days' absence. Mackenzie had not found the North- 
west Passage. He had proved there was no North- 
west Passage, and discovered the Mississippi of the 
north — Mackenzie River. 

Mackenzie spent the long winter at Fort Chipewyan; 
but just as soon as the rivers cleared of ice, he took 
passage in the east-bound canoes and hurried down to 
the Grand Portage or Fort William on Lake Superior, 
the headquarters of the Northwest Company, where 
he reported his discovery of Mackenzie River. His 
report was received with utter indifference. The com- 
panv had other matters to think about. It was 
girding itself for the life-and-death struggle with its 
rival, the Hudson's Bay Company. " My expedition 
was hardly spoken of, but that is what I expected," he 
writes to his cousin. But chagrin did not deter pur- 
pose. He asked the directors' permission to explore 
that other broad stream — Peace River — rolling down 
from the mountains. His request was granted. 
Winter saw him on furlough in England, studying 
astronomy and surveying for the next expedition. 
Here he heard much of the Western Sea — the Pacific 
— that fired his eagerness. The voyages of Cook and 
Hanna and Meares were on everybody's lips. Spain 
and England and Russia were each pushing for first 
possession of the northwest coast. Mackenzie 
hurried back to his Company's fort on the banks of 



288 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Peace River, where he spent a restless winter waiting 
for navigation to open. Doubts of his own ambitions 
began to trouble him. What if Peace River did not 
lead to the west coast at all ? What if he were behind 
some other discoverer sent out by the Spaniards or the 
Russians ? " I have been so vexed of late that I can- 
not sit down to anything steadily," he confesses in a 
letter to his cousin. Such a tissue-paper wall sepa- 
rates the aims of the real hero from those of the fool, 
that almost every ambitious man must pass through 
these periods of self-doubt before reaching the goal of 
his hopes. But despondency did not benumb Mac- 
kenzie into apathy, as it has weaker men. 

By April he had shipped the year's furs from the 
forks of Peace River to Chipewyan. By May his 
season's work was done. He was ready to go up 
Peace River. A birch canoe thirty feet long, lined 
with lightest of cedar, was built. In this were stored 
pemmican and powder. Alexander Mackay, a clerk 
of the company, was chosen as first assistant. Six 
Canadian voyageurs — two of whom had accompanied 
Mackenzie to the Arctic — and two Indian hunters 
made up the party of ten who stepped into the canoes 
at seven in the evening of May 9, 1793. 

Peace River tore down from the mountains flooded 
with spring thaw. The crew soon realized that pad- 
dles must be bent against the current of a veritable 



FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES 289 

mill-race ; hut it was safer going against, than with, 
such a current, for unknown dangers could be seen 
from below instead oi above, where suction would 
whirl a canoe on the rocks. Keen air foretold the 
nearing mountains. In less than a week snow-capped 
peaks had crowded the canoe in a narrow canon 
below a tumbling cascade where the river was one wild 
sheet of tossing foam as far as eye could see. The 
difficultv was to land ; for precipices rose on each side 
in a wall, down which rolled enormous boulders and 
land-slides of loose earth. To portage goods up these 
walls was impossible. Fastening an eighty-foot tow- 
line to the bow, Mackenzie leaped to the declivity, axe 
in hand, cut foothold along the face of the steep cliff 
to a place where he could jump to level rock, and then, 
turning, signalled through the roar of the rapids for 
his men to come on. The voyageurs were paralyzed 
with fear. They stripped themselves ready to. swim if 
they missed the jump, then one by one vaulted from 
foothold to foothold where Mackenzie had cut till they 
came to the final jump across water. Here Macken- 
zie caught each on his shoulders as the voyageurs 
leaped. The tow-line was then passed round trees 
growing on the edge of the precipice, and the canoe 
tracked up the raging cascade. The waves almost 
• lashed the frail craft to pieces. Once a wave caught 
her sideways ; the tow-line snapped like a pistol shot, 
u 



290 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

for just one instant the canoe hung poised, and then 
the back-wash of an enormous boulder drove her bow 
foremost ashore, where the voyageurs regained the tow- 
line. 

The men had not bargained on this kind of work. 
They bluntly declared that it was absurd trying to go 




Slave Lake Indians. 

up canons with such cascades. Mackenzie paid no 
heed to the murmurings. He got his crew to the top 
of the hill, spread out the best of a regale — including 
tea sweetened with sugar — and while the men were 
stimulating courage by a feast, he went ahead to recon- 
noitre the gorge. Windfalls of enormous spruce trees, 



FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES 291 

with a thickness twice the height of a man, lay on a 
steep declivity of sHding rock. Up this climbed Mac- 
kenzie, clothes torn to tatters by devil's club (a 
thorn bush with spines like needles), boots hacked to 
pieces by the sharp rocks, and feet gashed with cuts. 
The prospect was not bright. As far as he could see 
the river was one succession of cataracts fifty feet wide 
walled in by stupendous precipices, down which rolled 
great boulders, shattering to pebbles as they fell. The 
men were right. No canoe could go up that stream. 
Mackenzie came back, set his men to repairing the 
canoe and making axe handles, to avoid the idleness 
that breeds mutiny, and sent Mackay ahead to see 
how far the rapids extended. Mackay reported that 
the portage would be nine miles over the mountain. 

Leading the way, axe in hand, Mackenzie began 
felling trees so that the trunks formed an outer railing 
to prevent a fall down the precipice. Up this trail 
they warped the canoe by pulling the tow-line round 
stumps, five men going in advance to cut the way, 
five hauling and pushing the canoe. In one day 
progress was three miles. By five in the afternoon 
the men were so exhausted that they went to bed — if 
bare ground with sky overhead could be called bed. 
One thing alone encouraged them : as they rose 
higher up the mountain side, they saw that the green 
edges of the glaciers and the eternal snows projected 



292 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

over the precipices. They were nearing the summit 
— they must surely soon cross the Divide. The air 
grew colder. For three days the choppers worked in 
their blanket coats. When they finally got the canoe 
down to the river-bed, it was to see another range of 
impassable mountains barring the way westward. All 
that kept Mackenzie's men from turning back was 
that awful 'portage of nine miles. Nothing ahead 
could be worse than what lay behind ; so they em- 
barked, following the south branch where the river 
forked. The stream was swift as a cascade. Half the 
crew walked to lighten the canoe and prevent grazing 
on the rocky bottoms. 

Once, at dusk, when walkers and paddlers hap- 
pened to have camped on opposite shores, the march- 
ers came dashing across stream, wading neck-high, with 
news that they had heard the firearms of Indian 
raiders. Fires were put out, muskets loaded, and 
each man took his station at the foot of a tree, where 
all passed a sleepless night. No hostiles appeared. 
The noise was probably falling avalanches. And once 
when Mackenzie and Mackay had gone ahead with 
the Indian interpreters, they came back to find that 
the canoe had disappeared. In vain they kindled 
fires, fired guns, set branches adrift on the swift cur- 
rent as a signal — no response came from the voyageurs. 
The boatmen evidently did not wish to be found. 



FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES 293 

What Mackenzie's suspicions were one may guess. 
It would be easier for the crew to float back down 
Peace River than pull against this terrific current with 
more portages over mountains. The Indians became 
so alarmed that they wanted to build a raft forthwith 
and float back to Chipewyan. The abandoned party 
had not tasted a bite of food for twenty-four hours. 
They had not even seen a grouse, and in their powder 
horns were only a few rounds of ammunition. Sepa- 
rating, Mackenzie and his Indian went up-stream, 
Mackay and his went down-stream, each agreeing to 
signal the other by gunshots if either found the 
canoe. Barefooted and drenched in a terrific thunder- 
storm, Mackenzie wandered on till darkness shrouded 
the forest. He had just lain down on a soaking 
couch of spruce boughs when the ricochetting echo of 
a gun set the boulders crashing down the precipices. 
Hurrying down-stream, he found Mackay at the 
canoe. The crew pretended that a leakage about 
the keel had caused delay ; but the canoe did not sub- 
stantiate the excuse. Mackenzie said nothing; but he 
never again allowed the crew out of his sight on the 
east side of the mountains. 

So far there had been no sign of Indians among 
the mountains; and now the canoe was gliding along 
calm waters when savages suddenly sprang out of a 
thicket, brandishing spears. The crew became panic- 



294 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

stricken ; but Mackenzie stepped fearlessly ashore, 
offered the hostiles presents, shook hands, and made 
his camp with them. The savages told him that he 
was nearing a portage across the Divide. One of 
them went with Mackenzie the next day as guide. 
The river narrowed to a small tarn — the source of 
Peace River ; and a short portage over rocky ground 
brought the canoe to a second tarn emptying into a 
river that, to Mackenzie's disappointment, did not flow 
west, but south. He had crossed the Divide, the first 
white man to cross the continent in the North; but how 
could he know whether to follow this stream? It might 
lead east to the Saskatchewan. As a matter of fact, 
he was on the sources of the Eraser, that winds for 
countless leagues south through the mountains before 
turning westward for the Pacific. 

Full of doubt and misgivings, uncertain whether 
he had crossed the Divide at all, Mackenzie ordered 
the canoe down this river. Snowy peaks were on 
every side. Glaciers lay along the mountain tarns, 
icy green from the silt of the glacier grinding over 
rock ; and the river was hemmed in by shadowy 
canons with roaring cascades that compelled frequent 
portage. Mackenzie wanted to walk ahead, in order 
to lighten the canoe and look out for danger ; but 
fear had got in the marrow of his men. They thought 
that he was trying to avoid risks to which he was 



FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES 295 

exposing them ; and they compelled him to embark, 
vowing, if they were to perish, he was to perish with 
them. 

To quiet their fears, Mackenzie embarked with 
them. Barely had they pushed out when the canoe 
was caught by a sucking undercurrent which the 
paddlers could not stem — a terrific rip told them 
that the canoe had struck — the rapids whirled her 
sideways and away she went down-stream — the men 
jumped out, but the current carried them to such 
deep water that they were clinging to the gunwales as 
best they could when, with another rip, the stern was 
torn clean out of the canoe. The blow sent her 
swirling — another rock battered the bow out — the 
keel flattened like a raft held together only by the 
bars. Branches hung overhead. The bowman made 
a frantic grab at these to stop the rush of the canoe — 
he was hoisted clear from his seat and dropped ashore 
Mackenzie jumped out up to his waist in ice-water. 
The steersman had yelled for each to save himself; 
but Mackenzie shouted out a countermand for every 
man to hold on to the gunwales. In this fashion thev 
were all dragged several hundred yards till a whirl 
sent the wreck into a shallow eddy. The men got 
their feet on bottom, and the wreckage was hauled 
ashore. During the entire crisis the Indians sat on 
top of the canoe, howling with terror. 



296 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

All the bullets had been lost. A few were recovered. 
Powder was spread out to dry ; and the men flatly re- 
fused to go one foot farther. Mackenzie listened to 
the revolt without a word. He got their clothes dry 
and their benumbed limbs warmed over a roaring fire. 
He fed them till their spirits had risen. Then he 
quietly remarked that the experience would teach 
them how to run rapids in the future. Men of the 
North — to turn back ? Such a thing had never been 
known in the history of the Northwest Fur Company. 
It would disgrace them forever. Think of the honor 
of conquering disaster. Then he vowed that he would 
go ahead, whether the men accompanied him or not. 
Then he set them to patching the canoe with oil-cloth 
and bits of bark ; but large sheets of birch bark are 
rare in the Rockies ; and the patched canoe weighed 
so heavily that the men could scarcely carry it. It 
took them fourteen hours to make the three-mile 
portage of these rapids. The Indian from the moun- 
tain tribe had lost heart. Mackenzie and Mackay 
watched him by turns at night ; but the fellow got 
away under cover of darkness, the crew conniving at 
the escape in order to compel Mackenzie to turn back. 
Finally the river wound into a large stream on the west 
side of the main range of the Rockies. Mackenzie 
had crossed the Divide. 
-^ For a week after crossing the Divide, the canoe 



FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES 297 

followed the course of the river southward. This was 
not what Mackenzie expected. He sought a stream 
flowing directly westward, and was keenly alert for sign 
of Indian encampment where he might learn the short- 
est way to the Western Sea. Once the smoke of a 
camp-fire rose through the bordering forest ; but no 
sooner had Mackenzie's interpreters approached than 
the savages fired volley after volley of arrows and 
swiftly decamped, leaving no trace of a trail. There 
was nothing to do but continue dow^n the devious 
course of the uncertain river. The current was swift 
and the outlook cut off by the towering mountains ; 
but in a bend of the river they came on an Indian 
canoe drawn ashore. A savage was just emerging 
from a side stream when Mackenzie's men came in 
view. With a wild whoop, the fellow made off for 
the woods ; and in a trice the narrow river was lined 
with naked warriors, brandishing spears and displaying 
the most outrageous hostility. When Mackenzie 
attempted to land, arrows hissed past the canoe, which 
they might have punctured and sunk. Determined to 
learn the way westward from these Indians, Mackenzie 
tried strategy. He ordered his men to float some dis- 
tance from the savages. Then he landed alone on the 
shore opposite the hostiles, having sent one of his 
interpreters bv a detour through the woods to lie in 
ambush with fusee ready for instant action. Throwing 



298 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

aside weapons, Mackenzie displayed tempting trinkets. 
The warriors conferred, hesitated, jumped in the canoes, 
and came, backing stern foremost, toward Mackenzie. 
He threw out presents. They came ashore and were 
presently sitting by his side. 

From them he learned the river he was following 
ran for " many moons " through the " shining moun- 
tains " before it reached the "midday sun." It was 
barred by fearful rapids ; but by retracing the way 
back up the river, the white men could leave the 
canoe at a carrying place and go overland to the salt 
water in eleven days. From other tribes down the 
same river, Mackenzie gathered similar facts. He 
knew that the stream was misleading him ; but a retro- 
grade movement up such a current would discourage 
his men. He had only one month's provisions left. 
His ammunition had dwindled to one hundred and fifty 
bullets and thirty pounds of shot. Instead of folding 
his hands in despondency, Mackenzie resolved to set the 
future at defiance and go on. From the Indians he 
obtained promise of a man to guide him back. Then 
he frankly laid all the difficulties before his followers, 
declaring that he was going on alone and they need 
not continue unless they voluntarily decided to do so. 
His dogged courage was contagious. The speech was 
received with huzzas, and the canoe was headed up- 
stream. 



FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES 299 

The Indian guide was to join Mackenzie higher up- 
stream ; but the reappearance of the white men when 
they had said they would not be back for " many 
moons " roused the suspicions of the savages. The 
shores were Hned with warriors who would receive no 
explanation that Mackenzie tried to give in sign lan- 
guage. The canoe began to leak so badly that the boat- 
men had to spend half the time bailing out water; and 
the voyageurs dared not venture ashore for resin. Along 
the river cliff was a little three-cornered hut of thatched 
clay. Here Mackenzie took refuge, awaiting the return 
of the savage who had promised to act as guide. The 
three walls protected the rear, but the front of the hut was 
exposed to the warriors across the river ; and the whites 
dared not kindle a fire that might serve as a target. 
Two nights were passed in this hazardous shelter, 
Mackay and Mackenzie alternately lying in their 
cloaks on the wet rocks, keeping watch. At midnight 
of the third day's siege, a rustling came from the 
woods to the rear and the boatmen's dog set up a fu- 
rious barking. The men were so frightened that they 
three times loaded the canoe to desert their leader, but 
something in the fearless confidence of the explorer 
deterred them. As daylight sifted through the forest, 
Mackenzie descried a vague object creeping through 
the underbrush. A less fearless man would have fired 
and lost all. Mackenzie dashed out to find the cause 



300 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

of alarm an old blind man, almost in convulsions from 
fear. He had been driven from this river hut. Mac- 
kenzie quieted his terror with food. By signs the old 
man explained that the Indians had suspected treachery 
when the whites returned so soon; and by signs Mac- 
kenzie requested him to guide the canoe back up the 
river to the carrying place ; but the old creature went 
off in such a palsy of fear that he had to be lifted 
bodily into the canoe. The situation was saved. 
The hostiles could not fire without wounding one of 
their own people ; and the old man could explain the 
real reason for Mackenzie's return. Rations had been 
reduced to two meals a day. The men were still sulk- 
ing from the perils of the siege when the canoe struck 
a stump that knocked a hole in the keel, " which," re- 
ports Mackenzie, laconically, " gave them all an 
opportunity to let loose their discontent without re- 
serve," Camp after camp they passed, which the old 
man's explanations pacified, till they at length came to 
the carrying place. Here, to the surprise and delight 
of all, the guide awaited them. 

On July 4, provisions were cached^ the canoe 
abandoned, and a start made overland westward, each 
man carrying ninety pounds of provisions besides 
musket and pistols. And this burden was borne on 
the rations of two scant meals a day. The way was 
ridgy, steep, and obstructed by windfalls. At cloud- 



FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES 301 

line, the rocks were slippery as glass from moisture, 
and Mackenzie led the way, heating the drip from the 
branches as they marched. The record was twelve 
miles the first day. When it rained, the shelter was 
a piece of oil-cloth held up in an extemporized tent, 
the men crouching to sleep as best they could. The 




Good Hope, Mackenzie River. Hudson's Bay Company Fort. 

way was well beaten and camp was frequently made 
for the night with strange Indians, from whom fresh 
guides were hired ; but when he did not camp with the 
natives, Mackenzie watched his guide by sleeping 
with him. Though the fellow was malodorous from 
fish oil and infested with vermin, Mackenzie would 



302 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

spread his cloak in such a way that escape was impossi- 
ble without awakening himself. No sentry was kept at 
night. All hands were too deadly tired from the day's 
climb. Once, in the impenetrable gloom of the mid- 
night forest, Mackenzie was awakened by a plaintive 
chant in a kind of unearthly music. A tribe was en- 
gaged in religious devotions to some woodland deity. 
Totem poles of cedar, carved with the heads of animals 
emblematic of family clans, told Mackenzie that he was 
nearing the coast tribes. Barefooted, with ankles 
swollen and clothes torn to shreds, they had crossed 
the last range of mountains within two weeks of leaving 
the inland river. They now embarked with some 
natives for the sea. 

One can guess how Mackenzie's heart thrilled as 
they swept down the swift river — six miles an hour — 
past jfishing weirs and Indian camps, till at last, far 
out between the mountains, he descried the narrow arm 
of the blue, limitless sea. The canoe leaked like a 
sieve ; but what did that matter ? At eight o'clock 
on the morning of Saturday, July 20, the river carried 
them to a wide lagoon, lapped by a tide, with the sea- 
weed waving for miles along the shore. Morning 
fog still lay on the far-billowing ocean. Sea otters 
tumbled over the slimy rocks with discordant cries. 
Gulls darted overhead ; and past the canoe dived the 
great floundering grampus. There was no mistaking. 



FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES 303 

This was the sea — the Western Sea, that for three 
hundred years had baffled all search overland, and led 
the world's greatest explorers on a chase of a will-o'- 
the-wisp. What Cartier and La Salle and La Veren- 
drye failed to do, Mackenzie had accomplished. 

But Mackenzie's position was not to be envied. 
Ten starving men on a barbarous coast had exactly 
twenty pounds of pemmican, fifteen of rice, six of 
flour. Of ammunition there was scarcely any. 
Between home and their leaky canoe lay half a con- 
tinent of wilderness and mountains. The next day 
was spent coasting the cove for a place to take obser- 
vations. Canoes of savages met the white men, and 
one impudent fellow kept whining out that he had 
once been shot at by men of Mackenzie's color. 
Mackenzie took refuge for the night on an isolated 
rock which was barely large enough for his party to 
gain a foothold. The savages hung about pestering 
the boatmen for gifts. Two white men kept guard, 
while the rest slept. On Monday, when Mackenzie 
was setting up his instruments, his young Indian 
guide came, foaming at the mouth from terror, with 
news that the coast tribes were to attack the white 
men by hurling spears at the unsheltered rock. The 
boatmen lost their heads and were for instant flight, 
anywhere, everywhere, in a leaky canoe that would 
have foundered a mile out at sea. Mackenzie did 



304 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

not stir, but ordered fusees primed and the canoe 
gummed. Mixing up a pot of vermilion, he painted 
in large letters on the face of the rock where they 
had passed the night : — 

^" Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, the 
twenty-second of July, one thousand seven hundred 
and ninety-three." 

The canoe was then headed eastward for the home- 
ward trip. Only once was the explorer in great 
danger on his return. It was just as the canoe was 
leaving tide-water for the river. The young Indian 
guide led him full tilt into the village of hostiles that 
had besieged the rock. Mackenzie was alone, his 
men following with the baggage. Barely had he 
reached the woods when two savages sprang out, with 
daggers in hand ready to strike. Quick as a flash, 
Mackenzie quietly raised his gun. They dropped 
back ; but he was surrounded by a horde led by the 
impudent chief of the attack on the rock the first 
night on the sea. One warrior grasped Mackenzie 
from behind. In the scuffle hat and cloak came off; 
but Mackenzie shook himself free, got his sword out, 
and succeeded in holding the shouting rabble at bay 
till his men came. Then such was his rage at the 
indignity that he ordered his followers in line with 
loaded fusees, marched to the village, demanded the 
return of the hat and cloak, and obtained a peace- 



FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES 305 

offering of fish as well. The Indians knew the power 
of firearms, and fell at his feet in contrition. Mac- 
kenzie named this camp Rascal Village. 

At another time his men lost heart so completely 
over the difficulties ahead that they threw everything 
they were carrying into the river. Mackenzie 
patiently sat on a stone till they had recovered from 
their panic. Then he reasoned and coaxed and 
dragooned them into the spirit of courage that at last 
brought them safely over mountain and through 
canon to Peace River. On August 2 4, a sharp 
bend in the river showed them the little home fort 
which they had left fo ur months^ before. The joy of 
the voyageurs fairly exploded. They beat their pad- 
dles on the canoe, fired off all the ammunition that 
remained, waved flags, and set the cliffs ringing with 
shouts. 

Mackenzie spent the following winter at Chipewyan, 
despondent and lonely. " What a situation, starv- 
ing and alone ! " he writes to his cousin. The hard 
life was beginning to wear down the dauntless spirit. 
" I spend the greater part of mv time in vague specu- 
lations. ... In fact my mind was never at ease, nor 
could I bend it to my wishes. Though I am not 
superstitious, my dreams cause me great annoyance. 
I scarcely close my eyes without finding myself in 
company with the dead." 

X 



3o6 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

The following winter Mackenzie left the West 
never to return. The story of his travels was pub- 
lished early in the nineteenth century, and he was 
knighted by the English king. The remainder of his 
life was spent quietly on an estate in Scotland, where 
he died in 1820. 




The Mouth of the Mackenzie by the Light of the Midnight Sun. 
— C. W. Mathers. 



CHAPTER XI 

1803-1806 

j^EWIS AND CLAR^ 

The First White Men to ascend the Missouri to its Sources and 
descend the Columbia to the Pacific — Exciting Adventures on the 
Canons of the Missouri, the Discovery of thejGreat Falls and the 
Yellowstone — Lewis' Escape from Hostiles 

The spring of 1904 witnessed the centennial celebra- 
tion of an area as large as half the kingdoms of Europe, 
that has the unique distinction of having transferred its 
allegiance to three different flags within twenty-four 
hours. 

At the opening of the nineteenth century Spain had 
ceded all the region vaguely known as Louisiana back 
to France, and France had sold the territory to the 
United States ; but post-horse and stage of those old 
days travelled slowly. News of Spain's cession and 
France's sale reached Louisiana almost simultaneously. 
On March 9, 1804, ^^e Spanish grandees of St. 
Louis took down their flag and, to the delight of 
Louisiana, for form's sake erected French colors. On 

307 



3o8 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

March lo, the French flag was lowered for the 
emblem that has floated over the Great West ever 
since — the stars and stripes. How vast was the new 
territory acquired, the eastern states had not the 
slighest conception. As early as 1792 Captain Gray, 
of the ship Columbia^ from Boston, had blundered 
into the harbor of a vast river flowing into the Pacific. 
What lay between this river and that other great river 
on the eastern side of the mountains — the Missouri '^. 
Jefferson had arranged with John Ledyard of Con- 
necticut, who had been with Captain Cook on the Pa- 
cific, to explore the northwest coast of America by 
crossing Russia overland ; but Russia had similar 
designs for herself, and stopped Ledyard on the way. 
In 1803 President Jefferson asked Congress for an 
appropriation to explore the Northwest by way of the 
Missouri. Now that the wealth of the West is beyond 
the estimate of any figure, it seems almost inconceiv- 
able that there were people little-minded enough to 
haggle over the price paid for Louisiana — 1 15,000,000 
— and to object to the appropriation required for its 
exploration — ^2500; but fortunately the world goes 
ahead in spite of hagglers. 

May of 1 804 saw Captain Meriwether Lewis, formerly 
secretary to President Jefferson, and Captain William 
Clark of Virginia launch out from Wood River oppo- 
site St. Louis, where they had kept their men encamped 



LEWIS AND CLARK 309 

all winter on the east side of the Mississippi, waiting 
until the formal transfer of Louisiana for the long jour- 
ney of exploration to the sources of the Missouri and 
the Columbia. Their escort consisted of twenty sol- 
diers, eleven voyageurs^ and nine frontiersmen. The 




Captain Meriwether Lewis. 

main craft was a keel boat fifty-five feet long, of light 
draft, with square-rigged sail and twenty-two oars, and 
tow-line fastened to the mast pole to track the boat up- 
stream through rapids. An American flag floated 
trom the prow, and behind the flag the universal types 



3IO PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

of progress everywhere — goods for trade and a swivel- 
gun. Horses were led alongshore for hunting, and 
two pirogues — sharp at prow, broad at stern, like a 
flat-iron or a turtle — glided to the fore of the keel boat. 




Captain William Clark. 

The Missouri was at flood tide, turbid with crum- 
bling clay banks and great trees torn out by the roots, 
from which keel boat and pirogues sheered safely off. 
For the first time in history the Missouri resounded 
to the Fourth of July guns ; and round camp-fire the 
men danced to the strains of a voyageurs fiddle. 



LEWIS AND CLARK 311 

Usually, among forty men is one traitor, and Liberte 
must desert on pretence of running back for a knife ; 
but perhaps the fellow took fright from the wild yarns 
told by the lonely-eyed, shaggy-browed, ragged trap- 
pers who came floating down the Platte, down the 
Osage, down the Missouri, with canoe loads of furs 
for St. Louis. These men foregathered with the 
voyageurs and told only too true stories of the dan- 
gers ahead. Fires kindled on the banks of the river 
called neighboring Indians to council. Council Bluffs 
commemorates one conference, of which there were 
many with lowas and Omahas and Ricarees and Sioux. 
Pause was made on the south side of the Missouri to 
visit the high mound where Blackbird, chief of the 
Omahas, was buried astride his war horse that his spirit 
might forever watch the French voyageurs passing up 
and down the river. 

By October the explorers were sixteen hundred 
miles north of St. Louis, at the Mandan villages near 
where Bismarck stands to-day. The Mandans wel- 
comed the white men ; but the neighboring tribes of 
Ricarees were insolent. " Had I these white warriors 
on the upper plains," boasted a chief to Charles Mac- 
kenzie, one of the Northwest Fur Company men 
from Canada, " my young men on horseback would 
finish them as they would so many wolves ; for there 
are only two sensible men among them, the worker of 



312 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

iron [blacksmith] and the mender of guns." Four 
Canadian traders had already been massacred by this 
chief. Captain Lewis knew that his company must 
winter on the east side of the mountains, and there 
were a dozen traders — Hudson Bay and Nor' west- 
ers — on the ground practising all the unscrupulous 
tricks of rivals, Nor'westers driving off Hudson 
Bay horses, Hudson Bay men driving off Nor'- 
westers', to defeat trade ; so Captain Lewis at once 
had a fort constructed. It was triangular in shape, 
the two converging walls consisting of barracks with 
a loopholed bastion at the apex, the base being a high 
wall of strong pickets where sentry kept constant 
guard. Hitherto Captain Lewis had been able to 
secure the services of French trappers as inter- 
preters with the Indians ; but the next year he was 
going where there were no trappers ; and now he 
luckily engaged an old Nor' wester, Chaboneau, whose 
Indian wife, Sacajawea, was a captive from the Snake 
tribe of the Rockies.^ On Christmas morning, the 
stars and stripes were hoisted above Fort Mandan ; 
and all that night the men danced hilariously. On New 

1 Mention of this man is to be found in Northwest Company manuscripts, lately 
sold in the Masson collection of documents to the Canadian Archives and McGill 
College Library. It was also my good fortune — while this book was going to print — 
to see the entire family collection of Clark's letters, owned by Mrs. Julia Clark Voorhis 
of New York. Among these letters is one to Chaboneau from Clark. In spite of 
the cordial relations between the Nor'westers and Lewis and Clark, these fur traders 
cannot conceal their fear that this trip presages the end of the fur trade. 



LEWIS AND CLARK 313 

Years of 1805, the white men visited the Mandan 
lodges, and one voyageur danced " on his head " to 
the uproarious applause of the savages. All winter the 
men joined in the buffiilo hunts, laying up store of 
pemmican. In February, work was begun on the small 
boats for the ascent of the Missouri. By the end of 
March, the river had cleared of ice, and a dozen men 
were sent back to St. Louis. 

At five, in the afternoon of April 7, six canoes and 
two pirogues were pushed out on the Missouri. Sails 
were hoisted ; a cheer from the Canadian traders and 
Indians standing on the shore — and the boats glided 
up the Missouri with flags flying from foremost prow. 
Hitherto Lewis and Clark had passed over travelled 
ground. Now they had set sail for the Unknown. 
Within a week they had passed the Little Missouri, 
the height of land that divides the waters of the Mis- 
souri trom those of the Saskatchewan, and the great 
Yellowstone River, first found by wandering French 
trappers and now for the first time explored. The 
current of the Missouri grew swifter, the banks steeper, 
and the use of the tow-line more frequent. The voyage 
was no more the holiday trip that it had been all the 
way from St. Louis. Hunters were kept on the banks 
to forage for game, and once four of them came so 
suddenly on an open-mouthed, ferocious old bear that 
he had turned hunter and they hunted before guns 



314 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

could be loaded ; and the men saved themselves only 
by jumping twenty feet over the bank into the river. 

For miles the boats had to be tracked up-stream by 
the tow-line. The shore was so steep that it offered 
no foothold. Men and stones slithered heterogene- 




Tracking Up-stream. 



ously down the sliding gravel into the water. Moc- 
casins wore out faster than they could be sewed ; and 
the men's feet were cut by prickly-pear and rock as if 
by knives. On Sunday, May 26, when Captain 
Lewis was marching to lighten the canoes, he had 
just climbed to the summit of a high, broken cliff when 



LEWIS AND CLARK 315 

there burst on his glad eyes a first glimpse of the far, 
white "Shining Mountains" of which the Indians 
told, the Rockies, snowy and dazzling in the morning 
sun. One can guess how the weather-bronzed, ragged 
man paused to gaze on the glimmering summits. 
Only one other explorer had ever been so far west in 
this region — young De la Verendrye, fifty years before ; 
but the Frenchman had been compelled to turn back 
without crossing the mountains, and the two Ameri- 
cans were to assail and conquer what had proved an 
impassable barrier. The Missouri had become too 
deep for poles, too swift for paddles ; and the banks 
were so precipitous that the men were often poised at 
dizzy heights above the river, dragging the tow-line 
round the edge of rock and crumbly cliff. Captain 
Lewis was leading the way one day, crawling along the 
face of a rock wall, when he slipped. Only a quick 
thrust of his spontoon into the cliff saved him from 
falling almost a hundred feet. He had just struck it 
with terrific force into the rock, where it gave him firm 
handhold, when he heard a voice cry, " Good God, 
Captain, what shall I do ? " 

Windsor, a frontiersman, had slipped to the very 
verge of the rock, where he lay face down with right 
arm and leg completely over the precipice, his left hand 
vainly grabbing empty air for grip of anything that 
would hold him back. Captain Lewis was horrified. 



3i6 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

but kept his presence of mind; for the man's life hung 
by a thread. A move, a turn, the sHghtest start of 
alarm to disturb Windsor's balance — and he was lost. 




Typical Mountain Trapper. 

Steadying his voice, Captain Lewis shouted back, 
" You're in little danger. Stick your knife in the cliff 
to hoist yourself up." 

With the leverage of the knife, Windsor succeeded 
in lifting himself back to the narrow ledge. Then 




The Discovery of the Great Falls, 



LEWIS AND CLARK 317 

taking off his moccasins, he crawled along the cHff to 
broader foothold. Lewis sent word for the crews to 
wade the margin of the river instead of attempting this 
pass — which they did, though shore water was breast 
high and ice cold. 

The Missouri had now become so narrow that it 
was hard to tell which was the main river and which a 
tributary ; so Captain Lewis and four men went in 
advance to find the true course. Leaving camp at 
sunrise. Captain Lewis was crossing a high, bare plain, 
when he heard the most musical of all wilderness 
sounds — the far rushing that is the voice of many 
waters. Far above the prairie there shimmered in the 
morning sun a gigantic plume of spray. Surely this 
was the Great Falls of which the Indians told. Lewis 
and his men broke into a run across the open for seven 
miles, the rush of waters increasing to a deafening 
roar, the plume of spray to clouds of foam. Cliffs 
two hundred feet high shut off the view. Down these 
scrambled Lewis, not daring to look away from his 
feet till safely at bottom, when he faced about to see 
the river compressed by sheer cliffs over which hurled 
a white cataract in one smooth sheet eighty feet high. 
The spray tossed up in a thousand bizarre shapes of 
wind-driven clouds. Captain Lewis drew the long 
sigh of the thing accomplished. He had found the 
Great Falls of the Missouri. 



3i8 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Seating himself on the rock, he awaited his hunters. 
That night they camped under a tree near the falls. 
Morning showed that the river was one succession of 
falls and rapids for eighteen miles. Here was indeed 
a stoppage to the progress of the boats. Sending back 
word to Captain Clark of the discovery of the falls, 
Lewis had ascended the course of the cascades to a 
high hill when he suddenly encountered a herd of a 
thousand buffalo. It was near supper-time. Quick 
as thought, Lewis fired. What was his amazement to 
see a huge bear leap from the furze to pounce on the 
wounded quarry ; and what was Bruin's amazement to 
see the unusual spectacle of a thing as small as a man 
marching out to contest possession of that quarry .? 
Man and bear reared up to look at each other. Bear 
had been master in these regions from time immemorial. 
Man or beast — which was to be master now? Lewis 
had aimed his weapon to fire again, when he recollected 
that it was not loaded ; and the bear was coming on 
too fast for time ro recharge. Captain Lewis was a 
brave man and a dignified man ; but the plain was 
bare of tree or brush, and the only safety was inglori- 
ous flight. But if he had to retreat, the captain 
determined that he would retreat only at a walk. 
The rip of tearing claws sounded from behind, and 
Lewis looked over his shoulder to see the bear at a 
hulking gallop, open-mouthed, — and off" they went. 




Fighting a Grizzly. 



LEWIS AND CLARK 319 

explorer and exploited, in a sprinting match of eighty 
yards, when the grunting roar of pursuer told pursued 
that the bear was gaining. Turning short, Lewis 
plunged into the river to mid-waist and faced about with 
his spontoon at the bear's nose. A sudden turn is an 
old trick with all Indian hunters; the bear floundered 
back on his haunches, reconsidered the sport of hunt- 
ing this new animal, man, and whirled right about for 
the dead buffalo. 

It took the crews from the 15th to the 25th of 
June to portage past the Great Falls. Cottonwood 
trees yielded carriage wheels two feet in diameter, and 
the masts of the pirogues made axletrees. On these 
wagonettes the canoes were dragged across the portage. 
It was hard, hot work. Grizzlies prowled round the 
camp at night, wakening the exhausted workers. The 
men actually fell asleep on their feet as they toiled, 
and spent half the night double-soling their torn 
moccasins, for the cactus already had most of the men 
limping from festered feet. Yet not one word of 
complaint was uttered; and once, when the men were 
camped on a green along the portage, a voyageur got 
out his fiddle, and the sore feet danced, which was 
more wholesome than moping or poulticing. The 
boldness of the grizzlies was now explained. Antelope 
and buffalo were carried over the falls. The bears 
prowled below for the carrion. 



320 



PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 



After failure to construct good hide boats, two 
other craft, twenty-five and thirty-three feet long, were 
knocked together, and the crews launched above the 

rapids for the far Shin- 
ing Mountains that 
lured like a mariner's 
beacon. Night and 
day, when the sun was 
hot, came the boom- 
boom as of artillery 
from the mountains. 
The voyageurs thought 
this the explosion of 
stones, but soon 
learned to recognize 
the sound of avalanche 
and land-slide. The 
river became narrower, 
deeper, swifter, as the 
explorers approached 
the mountains. For 
five miles rocks rose 
on each side twelve 




Packer carrying Goods across Portage. 



hundred feet high, sheer as a wall. Into this shadowy 
canon, silent as death, crept the boats of the white 
men, vainly straining their eyes for glimpse of 
egress from the watery defile. A word, a laugh, the 



LEWIS AND CLARK 321 

snatch of a voyageurs ditty, came back with elfin echo, 
as if spirits hung above the dizzy heights spying on 
the intruders. Springs and tenuous, wind-blown falls 
like water threads trickled down each side of the lofty 
rocks. The water was so deep that poles did not 
touch bottom, and there was not the width of a foot- 
hold between water and wall for camping ground. 
Flags were unfurled from the prows of the boats to 
warn marauding Indians on the height above that the 
voyageurs were white men, not enemies. Darkness 
fell on the canon with the great hushed silence of the 
mountains ; and still the boats must go on and on in 
the darkness, for there was no anchorage. Finally, 
above a small island in the middle of the river, was 
found a tiny camping ground with pine-drift enough 
for fire-wood. Here they landed in the pitchy dark. 
They had entered the Gates of the Rockies on the 
1 9th. of July. In the morning bighorn and mountain 
goat were seen scrambling along the ledges above the 
water. On the 25th the Three Forks of the Mis- 
souri were reached. Here the Indian woman, Saca- 
jawea, recognized the ground and practically became 
the guide of the party, advising the two explorers to 
follow the south fork or the Jefferson, as that was the 
stream which her tribe followed when crossing the 
mountains to the plains. 

It now became absolutely necessary to find moun- 



322 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 



tain Indians who would supply horses and guide the 
white men across the Divide. In the hope of finding 
the Indian trail, Captain Lewis landed with two men 
and preceded the boats. He had not gone five miles 
when to his sheer delight he saw a Snake Indian on 
horseback. Ordering his men to keep back, he 
advanced within a mile of the horseman and three times 
spread his blanket on the ground as a signal of friend- 




Spymg on an Enemy s Fort 

ship. The horseman sat motionless as bronze. Captain 
Lewis went forward, with trinkets held out to tempt a 
parley, and was within a few hundred yards when the 
savage wheeled and dashed off". Lewis' men had dis- 
obeyed orders and frightened the fellow by advancing. 
Deeply chagrined, Lewis hoisted an American flag as 
sign of friendship and continued his march. Tracks 
of horses were followed across a bog, along what 
was plainly an Indian road, till the sources of the Mis- 



LEWIS AND CLARK 323 

souri became so narrow that one of the men put a foot 
on each side and thanked God that he had Hved to 
bestride the Missouri. Stooping, all drank from 
the crystal spring whose waters they had traced for__ 
three thousand miles from St. Louis. Following a 
steep declivity, they were presently crossing the course 
of a stream that flowed west and must lead to some 
branch of the Columbia. 

Suddenly, on the cliff in front, Captain Lewis dis- 
covered two squaws, an Indian, and some dogs. Un- 
furling his flag, he advanced. The Indians paused, 
then dashed for the woods, Lewis tried to tie some 
presents round the dogs' necks as a peace-offering, 
but the curs made off after their master. The white 
men had not proceeded a mile before they came to 
three squaws, who never moved but bowed their heads 
to the ground for the expected blow that would make 
them captives. Throwing down weapons, Lewis 
pulled up his sleeve to show that he was white. Pres- 
ents allayed all fear, and the squaws had led him two 
miles toward their camp when sixty warriors came 
galloping at full speed with arrows levelled. The 
squaws rushed forward, vociferating and showing their 
presents. Three chiefs at once dismounted, and fell on 
Captain Lewis with such greasy embraces of welcome 
that he was glad to end the ceremony. Pipes were 
smoked, presents distributed, and the white men con- 



324 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

ducted to a great leathern lodge, where Lewis an- 
nounced his mission and prepared the Indians for the 
coming of the main force in the boats. 

The Snakes scarcely knew whether to believe the 
white man's tale. The Indian camp was short of pro- 



lirtMiii 







Indian Camp at Foothills of Rockies. 

visions, and Lewis urged the warriors to come back up 
the trail to meet the advancing boats. The braves hesi- 
tated. Cameahwait, the chief, harangued till a dozen 
warriors mounted their horses and set out, Lewis and 
his men each riding behind an Indian. Captain 
Clark could advance only slowly, and the Indians 



LEWIS AND CLARK 325 

with Lewis grew suspicious as they entered the rocky 
defiles without meeting the explorers' party. Half 
the Snakes turned back. Among those that went 
on were three women. To demonstrate good faith, 
Lewis again mounted a horse behind an Indian, though 
the bare-back riding over rough ground at a mad pace 
was almost jolting his bones apart. A spy came 
back breathless with news for the hungry warriors that 
one ot the white hunters had killed a deer, and the 
whole company lashed to a breakneck gallop that 
nearly finished Lewis, who could only cling for dear 
life to the Indian's waist. The poor wretches were 
so ravenous that they fell on the dead deer and de- 
voured it raw. It was here that Lewis expected the 
boats. They were not to be seen. The Indians grew 
more distrustful. The chief at once put fur collars, 
after the fashion of Indian dress, round the white men's 
shoulders. As this was plainly a trick to conceal 
the whites in case of treachery on their part, Lewis 
at once took off his hat and placed it on the chief's 
head. Then he hurried the Indians along, lest they 
should lose courage completely. To his mortification, 
Captain Clark did not appear. To revive the Indians' 
courage, the white men then passed their guns across 
to the Snakes, signalling willingness to suffer death it 
the Indians discovered treachery. That night all the 
Indians hid in the woods but five, who slept on guard 



326 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

round the whites. If anything had stopped Clark's 
advance, Lewis was lost. Though neither knew it, 
Lewis and Clark were only four miles apart. Clark, 
Chaboneau, the guide, and Sacajawea, the Indian 
woman, were walking on the shore early in the morn- 
ing, when the squaw began to dance with signs of the 
most extravagant joy. Looking ahead, Clark saw one 
of Lewis' men, disguised as an Indian, leading a com- 
pany of Snake warriors that the squaw had recognized 
as her own people, from whom she had been wrested 
when a child. The Indians broke into songs of de- 
light, and Sacajawea, dashing through the crowd, threw 
her arms round an Indian woman, sobbing and laugh- 
ing and exhibiting all the hysterical delight of a de- 
mented creature. Sacajawea and the woman had been 
playmates in childhood and had been captured in the 
same war ; but the Snake woman had escaped, while 
Sacajawea became a slave and married the French 
guide. 

Meanwhile, Captain Clark was being welcomed by 
Lewis and the chief, Cameahwait. Sacajawea was 
called to interpret. Cameahwait rose to speak. The 
poor squaw flung herself on him with cries of delight. 
In the chief of the Snakes she had recognized her 
brother. Laced coats, medals, flags, and trinkets were 
presented to the Snakes ; but though willing enough 
to act as guides, the Indians discouraged the explorers 



LEWIS AND CLARK 327 

about going on in boats. The western stream was 
broken for leagues by terrible rapids walled in with 
impassable precipices. Boats were abandoned and 
horses bought from the Snakes. The white men set 
their faces northwestward, the southern trail, usually 
followed by the Snakes, leading too much in the direc- 
tion of the Spanish settlements. Game grew so scarce 
that by September the men were without food and a 
colt was killed for meat. 

By October the company was reduced to a diet of 
dog; but the last Divide had been crossed. Horses 
were left with an Indian chief of the Flatheads, and 
the explorers glided down the Clearwater, leading to 
the Columbia, in five canoes and one pilot boat. 
Great was the joy in camp on November 8, 1805; 
for the boats had passed the last portage of the Colum- 
bia. When heavy fog rose, there burst on the eager 
gaze of the voyageurs the shining expanse of the 
Pacific. The shouts of the jubilant voyageurs mingled 
with the roar of ocean breakers. Like Alexander 
Mackenzie of the far North a decade before, Lewis and 
Clark had reached the long-sought Western Sea. 
They had been first up the Missouri, first across the 
middle Rockies, and first down the Columbia to the 
Pacific. 

Seven huts, known as Fort Clatsop, were knocked 
up on the south side of the Columbia's harbor for 



328 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

winter quarters ; and a wretched winter the Httle fort 
spent, beleaguered not by hostiles, but by such inclem- 
ent damp that all the men were ill before spring and 
their very leather suits rotted from their backs. 
Many a time, coasting the sea, were they benighted. 
Spreading mats on the sand, they slept in the drench- 
ing rain. Unused to ocean waters, the inland voya- 
geurs became deadly seasick. Once, when all were 
encamped on the shore, an enormous tidal wave broke 
over the camp with a smashing of log-drift that almost 
crushed the boats. Nez Perces and Flatheads had 
assisted the white men after the Snake guides had 
turned back. Clatsops and Chinooks were now their 
neighbors. Christmas and New Year of 1806 were 
celebrated by a discharge of firearms. No boats 
chanced to touch at the Columbia during the winter. 
The time was passed laying up store of elk meat and 
leather ; for the company was not only starving, but 
nearly naked. The Pacific had been reached on No- 
vember 14, 1805. Fort Clatsop was evacuated on 
the afternoon of March 23, 1806. 

The goods left to trade for food and horses when 
Lewis and Clark departed from the coast inland had 
dwindled to what could have been tied in two handker- 
chiefs ; but necessity proved the mother "of invention, 
and the men cut the brass buttons from their tattered 
clothes and vended brass trinkets to the Indians. The 



LEWIS AND CLARK 329 

medicine-chest was also sacrificed, every Indian tribe 
besieging the two captains for eye-water, fly-blisters, and 
other patent wares. The poverty of the white man 
roused the insolence of the natives on the return over 
the mountains. Rocks were rolled down on the boat- 
men at the worst porlages by aggressive Indians; and 
once, when the hungry voyageurs were at a meal of dog 
meat, an Indian impudently flung a live pup straight 
at Captain Lewis' plate. In a trice the pup was back 
in the fellow's face; Lewis had seized a weapon; and 
the crestfallen aggressor had taken ignominiously to 
his heels. When they had crossed the mountains, the 
forces divided into three parties, two to go east by the 
Yellowstone, one under Lewis by the main Missouri. 

Somewhere up the height of land that divides the 
southern waters of the Saskatchewan from the northern 
waters of the Missouri, the tracks of Minnetaree war- 
riors were found. These were the most murderous 
raiders of the plains. Over a swell of the prairie 
Lewis was startled to see a band of thirty horses, half 
of them saddled. The Indians were plainly on the 
war-path, for no women were in camp ; so Lewis 
took out his flag and advanced unfalteringly. An 
Indian came forward. Lewis and the chief shook 
hands, but Lewis now had no presents to pacify 
hostiles. Camping with the Minnetarees for the night, 
as if he feared nothing, Lewis nevertheless took good 



330 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

care to keep close watch on all movements. He 
smoked the pipe of peace with them as late as he 
dared ; and when he retired to sleep, he had ordered 
Fields and the other two white men to be on guard. 
At sunrise the Indians crowded round the fire, where 




Indians of the Up-country or Pays d'en Haut. 

Fields had for the moment carelessly laid his rifle. 
Simultaneously, the warriors dashed at the weapons of 
the sleeping white men, while other Indians made off 
with the explorers' horses. With a shout, Fields gave 
the alarm, and pursuing the thieves, grappled with the 



LEWIS AND CLARK 331 

Indian who had stolen his rifle. In the scuffle the 
Indian was stabbed to the heart. Drewyer succeeded 
in wresting back his gun, and Lewis dashed out with 
his pistol, shouting for the Indians to leave the horses. 
The raiders were mounting to go off at full speed. 
The white men pursued on foot. Twelve horses fell 
behind; but just as the Indians dashed for hiding 
behind a cliff, Lewis' strength gave out. He warned 
them if they did not stop he would shoot. An Indian 
turned to fire with one of the stolen weapons, and in- 
stantly Lewis' pistol rang true. The fellow rolled to 
earth mortally wounded ; but Lewis felt the whiz of a 
bullet past his own head. Having captured more 
horses than they had lost, the white men at once 
mounted and rode for their lives through river and 
slough, sixty miles without halt; for the Minnetarees 
would assuredly rally a larger band of warriors to their 
aid. A pause of an hour to refresh the horses and a 
wilder ride by moonlight put forty more miles between 
Captain Lewis and danger. At daylight the men 
were so sore from the mad pace for twentv-four hours 
that they could scarcelv stand ; but safety depended on 
speed and on they went again till they reached the 
main Missouri, where by singularly good luck some of 
the other voyageurs had arrived. 

The entire forces were reunited below the Yellow- 
stone on August 1 2th. Traders on the way up the 



232 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

Missouri from St. Louis brought first news of the 
outer world, and the discoverers were not a little 
amused to learn that they had been given up for dead. 
At the Mandans, Colter, one of the frontiersmen, 
asked leave to go back to the wilds ; and Chaboneau, 
with his dauntless wife, bade the white men farewell. 
On September 20th settlers on the river bank above 
St. Louis were surprised to see thirty ragged men, with 
faces bronzed like leather, passing down the river. Then 
some one remembered who these worn voyageurs were, 
and cheers of welcome made the cliffs of the Missouri 
ring. On September 23d, at midday, the boats drew 
quietly up to the river front of St. Louis. Lewis and 
Clark, the greatest pathfinders of the United States, 
had returned from the discovery of a new world as 
large as half Europe, without losing a single man but 
Sergeant Floyd, who had died from natural causes a 
few months after leaving St. Louis. What Radis- 
son had begun in 1 659-1 660, what De la Verendrye 
had attempted when he found the way barred by the 
Rockies — was completed by Lewis and Clark in 1805. 
It was the last act in that drama of heroes who carved 
empire out of wilderness ; and all alike possessed the 
same hero-qualities — courage and endurance that were 
indomitable, the strength that is generated in life-and- 
death grapple with naked primordial reality, and that 
reckless daring which defies life and death. Those 



LEWIS AND CLARK 333 

were hero-days ; and they produced hero-types, who 
Hung themselves against the impossible — and con- 
quered it. What they conquered we have inherited. 
It is the Great Northwest. 



APPENDIX 

For the very excellent translations of the almost untranslatable 
transcripts taken from the Marine Archives of Paris, and forwarded 
to me by the Canadian Archives, I am indebted to Mr. R. Roy, of 
the Marine Department, Ottawa, the eminent authority on French 
Canadian genealogical matters. 

Some of the topics in the Appendices are of such a controversial 
nature — the whereabouts of the Mascoutins, for instance — that at 
my request Mr. Roy made the translation absolutely literal no matter 
how incongruous the wording. To those who say Radisson was not 
on the Missouri I commend Appendix E, where the tribes of the West 
are described. 

APPENDIX A 

Copy of Letter written to M. Comporte by M. Chouart, 
AT London, the 29TH April, 1685 
Sir, 

I have received the two letters with which you have honored me ; 
I have even received one inclosed that I have not given, for reasons 
that I will tell you, God willing, in a few davs. 

I have received your instructions contained in the one and the other, 
as to the way I should act, and I should not have failed to execute all 
that you order me for the service of our Master, if I had been at full 
liberty so to do ; you must have no doubt about it, because mv in- 
clination and my duty agree perfectly well. All the advantages that I 
am offered did not for a moment cause me to waver, but, in short, sir, 
I could not go to Paris, and I shall be happy to go and meet you by 
the route you travel. I shall be w ell pleased to find landed the people 

335 



i,2(> PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

vou state will be there ; in case they may have the commission you 
speak of in your two letters, have it accompanied if you please with a 
memorandum of what I shall have to do for the service of our Master. 
I know of a case whereby I am sufficiently taught that it is not safe to 
undertake too many things, however advantageous they may be, nor 
undertaking too little. I am convinced, sir, that having orders, I will 
carry them out at the risk of my life, and I flatter myself that you do 
not doubt it. 

There is much likelihood that the men you sent last year are lost. 

I should like, sir, to be at the place you desire me to go ; be as- 
sured I will perish, or be there as soon as I possibly can ; it is saying 
enough. I do not answer to the rest of your letter, it is sufficient that 
I am addressing a sensible man, who, knowing my heart, will not 
doubt that I will keep my word with him, as I believe he will do all 
he can for my interests. 

I am, with much anxiety to see you, sir, your most humble and 
most obedient servant, 

(signed) CHOUART. 

I will leave here only on the 25th of next month. 

APPENDIX B 

Copy OF Letter w^ritten by M. Chouart to Mrs. des Gro- 
seillers, his mother 

At London, i ith April, 1685. 
My very dear Mother, 

I learn by the letter you have written me, of the 2nd November 
last, that my father has returned from France without obtaining any- 
thing at that Court, which made you think of leaving Quebec ; my 
sentiment would be that you abandon this idea as I am strongly de- 
termined to go and be by you at the first opportunity I get, which 
shall be, God willing, as soon as I have taken means to that effect 
when I have returned from the North. 

I hope to start on this voyage in a month or six weeks at the latest ; 



APPENDIX 



337 



I cannot determine on what date I could be near you ; my father may 
know what difficulties there are. However, I hope to surmount them, 
and there is nothing I would not do to that end. 

The moncv I left with my cousin is intended to buy you a house, 
as I have had always in mind to do, had not my father opposed it, but 
now I will do it so as to give you a chance to get on, and always see 
you in the country where I will live. 

I have been made, here, proposals of marriage, to which I have not 
listened, not being here under the rule of my king nor near my parents, 
and I would have left this kingdom had I been given the liberty to do 
so, but thev hold back on me mv pav and the price of my merchandise, 
and I cannot sail away as orders have been given to arrest me in case 
I should prepare to leave. 

What you fear in reference to my money should not give you any 
uneasiness on account of the English. I will cause it to be pretty well 
known that I never intended to follow the English. I have been sur- 
prised and forced by my uncle's subterfuges to risk this voyage being 
unable to escape the English vessels where my uncle made me go with- 
out disclosing his plan, which he has worked out in bringing me here, 
but I will not disclose mine either : to abandon this nation. I am 
willing that my cousin should pay you the income on my money, until 
I return home. M. the earl of Denonville, vour governor, will see 
to my mother's affairs, as thev who render service to the country will 
not be forsaken as in the past, and being generous as he is, loyal and 
zealous for his country, he will inform the Court what there is to be 
done for the benefit of our nation. 

I am, my dear mother, to my father and to you, 

most obedient servant, 
(signed) CHOUART. 

And below is written : — 

Mother, 

I pray you to see on mv behalf M. du Lude, and assure him of mv 
very humble services. I will have the honor of seeing him as soon as 
I can. Please do the same with M. Peray and all our good friends. 
z 



338 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 
APPENDIX C 

COUNCIL 

Held at fort Pontchartrain, in 
lake Erie strait, 8th June, 
1704. 

By the indians Kiskacous, 
Ottawa, Sinagot of the Sable 
Nation, Hurons, Saulteurs 
(Sauk Indians), Amikoique 
(Amikoues), Mississaugas, 
Nipissings, Miamis and 
Wolves, in the presence of 
M. de Lamothe-Cadillac, com- 
manding at the said fort ; de 
Tonty, captain of a detach- 
ment of Marines ; the rev F. 
Constantin, Recollet mission- 
ary at the said post ; Messrs 
Desnoyers and Radisson, prin- 
cipal clerks of the Company 
of the Colony, and of all the 
French, soldiers as well as 
voyageurs. 
The one named FORTY SOLS, (40 half-penny), Indian chief of 

the Huron nation speaks as much on behalf of the said nation as of all 

those present at the meeting. 

**We ask that all the French be present at this 

The French hav- /^ m 1 1 1 11 1 -n 

Council so that they hear and know what we wiJl sav 
ing come, he ' 

said:- to you- 

** We are well on this land, it is very good, and 

we are much pleased with it; listen well, father, we pray you. 

" Mrs de Tonty went away last year ; she did not return ; we see 

you going away to-day, father, with your wife, your children and all 



APPENDIX 339 

the Frenchwomen as well as that of M. Radisson, who is going down 
with you; that reveals to us that you abandon us. 

" We are angry for good and ill-disposed if the women go away. 
We pray you to pay attention to this because we could not stop you 
nor your young men : we demand that Radisson remains, or at least, 
that he returns promptly. 

By a Necklace (Wampum) 

" We will escort your wife and the other Frenchwomen who intend 
to go down to Montreal. Now, mind well what we are asking you. 

"We readily see that the Governor is a liar, as he does not keep 
to what he has promised us ; as he has lied to us we will lie to him 
also, and we will listen no more to his word. 

"What brings that man here (speaking of M. Desnoyers) ? We 
do not know him and do not understand him ; we are ill-disposed. 
It is two years since you have been gathering in our peltries, part of 
which has been taken down ; we will allow nothing to leave until the 
French come up with goods. 

By another Necklace 

♦' Father, we pray you to send back that man (speaking of M. 
Desnoyers), because if he remains here, we do not answer for his 
safety; our people have told us that he despises our peltries and only 
wanted beaver ; where does he want us to get it. We absolutely 
want him to go ; nothing will leave the house where the trading is 
done and where the peltries and bundles are, until the French arrive 
here with merchandise and they be allowed to trade. When we 
came here, the Governor did not tell us that the merchants would be 
masters over the merchandise ; he lied to us ; we ask that all the 
Frenchmen trade here ; we pray you to write and tell him what we 
are saying, and if he does not listen to us, we will also refuse to accept 
his word. 

•' The land is not yours, it is ours, and we will leave it to go where 
we like without anvbodv finding fault. We regret having allowed 
the surgeon to leave as we apprehend he will not come back. 



340 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

" We pray you will cause to remain Gauvereau the blacksmith and 
gunsmith. 

♦' I have nothing more to say, I have spoken for all the nations 
here present." 

M. de Lamothe had a question put to the Ottawa and the other 
nations, if that was their sentiment ; they all answered : Yes, and that 
they were of one and the same mind. He told them that, seeing they 
had taken time to think over what they had just said, he would con- 
sider as to what he had to answer them, and, put them off to the 
morrow, after having accepted their necklace. 

(Not signed.) 



COUNCIL 



Held at fort Pontchartrain, in 
lake Erie strait, the 9th June, 
1704. 

By the Indians Kiskacous ; 
Ottawas ; Sinagotres, the Sable 
nation ; Hurons ; Sauteux 
(Sault Ste Marie indians) ; 
Amikoique (Beaver nation) ; 
Mississaugas ; Miamis and 
Wolves in the presence of 
M. de Lamothe- Cadillac, com- 
manding at the said fort ; de 
Tonty, captain of a detach- 
ment of Marines ; the rev F. 
Constantin, Recollet mission- 
ary at the said post, Messrs 
Desnoyers and Radisson, prin- 
cipal clerks of the Company 
of the Colonv, and of all the 
French, soldiers as well as 
voyageurs. 



APPENDIX 341 

M. de Lamothc addressed all the said nations : — 

"As you requested me to pay attention to your words, please 
listen, the same, to-day. 

•' I was aware that Mdme. de Tonty's trip to Montreal last vear had 
given you umbrage, because she did not come back ; and the cause of 
it is her pregnancy. 

•* I knew also that my wife's setting out for Montreal as also the 
other Frenchwomen was causing you uneasiness, because you believed 
I was going to abandon you. It is true she was going away, but it 
was not for ever. I showed her your necklace ; that her children 
would miss her very much and that they begged of her to stay. When 
she heard of your grief, she accepted your necklace and she will stay 
for some time, because she does not like to refuse her children ; the 
other Frenchwomen will remain also. 

"You spoke ill of the Governor when you said he was a liar. If 
anyone told you that he was forsaking you, I will be pleased if you will 
tell me who it is. As for me I have no knowledge of it. 

" M. Desnoyers was present when you offered your necklace, and 
like me he heard your statement. He told me you were wrong to 
complain about him because he would not take your peltries and that 
he wanted beaver only ; you are complaining inopportunely seeing that 
he has not done any trading. You should tell me who made those 
reports. But as you are not glad to see him, he has decided to go 
back, and as I am going down to Montreal on good business, he will 
accompany me, and also M. Radisson, because the Governor wants 
him, and he must obey, and we will arrange so that we come back 
together. 

'♦You have asked me to write down your speech to the Governor. 
I will be the bearer of it. I have not the authority to have the French 
to trade here ; it is a matter that M. the Governor will settle with 
M. the Intendant. 

"The Governor did not lie to you because he did not notify you 
the first year, that the merchants would be masters of the mer- 
chandise, because it was the King who sent it here then and I could 



34^ PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

dispose of it ; since then, an order came from the King in favor of the 
merchants. 

"This land is mine, because I am the first one who lighted a fire 
thereon, and you all took some to light yours. 

" I am very glad that you like this land, and that you find it is 
good, 

*<It is of no consequence that the surgeon left, because when one 
goes another comes, and the same applies for the gunsmith. 

" I have no more to tell you. Here is some tobacco that you may 
all smoke together, and that it may give you wisdom until I return and 
the Governor sends you his word. Attend to your mother during my 
absence, and see that she does not want for provisions, for if you do not 
take care of her, on my return I will not give you a drink of brandy. 

" M. de Tonty replaces me; I pray you to be on good terms 
with him," 

FORTY SOLS, chief of the Hurons, spoke for all the Indians : — 

" We remember well, father, of what we said yesterday because 
you repeat it to-day. We thank you for having listened to us and 
granted all we asked you. We thank the women for not going away, 
because their remaining is as if you remained. From to-morrow we 
will stimulate our young men to go after provisions for our mother. 

"It is three years ago, when in Montreal at the general meeting 
our chiefs died, the governor told us to have courage, that he was 
sorry for us, that he saw we were very far to come and get goods in 
Montreal, and he invited us to come and settle around you, and that 
he would send us merchandise at the same price as in Montreal. 
This worked well for two years, but goods rose up too much in price 
the third year. 

" The first year you came, we were very happy, but now we are 
naked, not even having a bad shirt to put on our back. We would be 
pleased by the establishment of several stores here, because if we were 
refused in one, we could go to another. 

" We are very glad of M. Desnoyers' going back because we do 
not know him and we fear some of our young men may be ill-disposed. 



APPENDIX 



343 



" We were under the impression tlie Governor had sold us to the 
merchants since they are the masters of the commerce. 

"It is true that we took of your fire to light ours but we have 
waited two years without anything coming this way so that your land 
is ours. I told the same thing to the Governor last year in Montreal. 

"Have courage, father, we will pray God for you during your 

voyage so that you may bring back good news." 

(Not signed.) 

APPENDIX D 



ClE DES InDES 



At Quebec, the 25TH October, 1735. 
Gentlemen, 

I have received the letter you did me the honor 



(Indies Co'y) 

Renders account to 
the said company of 
the death of Mr. Rad- 
isson, receiver at Mon- 
treal, of the nomina- 
tion ad interim of Mr. 
Gamelin to fill the 



to send me of the 9th March last. 

M. Radisson, your receiver at Montreal, died 
there the 14th of June, and immediately M. 
Gamelin, merchant, to whom Messrs La Gor- 
gendiere and Daine had given three years ago, had 
commissioned to look after your interests in de- 
fault or in case of death of M. Radisson, applied to 
M. Michel, my sub-delegate to affix the seals on 
vacancy of receiver, of all your effects, which was done according to the 
account to render by account rendered you by Messrs. La Gorgendiere 
Mr. Duplessis, heir ^,^j p^;^^_ 

of Mr. Radisson to . mi t i. 

...,., ^ It was necessary to fill the vacancy. 1 have 

reestablish price or ^ 

summer beaver as be- appointed temporarily in virtue of the authority, 
fore ordinance of the you gave, gentlemen, the same M. Gamelin ; I 
4th January, 1733. thought I could not have your interests in better 
hands, as much for his honesty than his intelligence 
in regulating his sales and his receipts. Indepen- 
dently of the knowledge he has of the different 
qualities of beaver, I have had the honor to speak 
to you on this subject in my preceding letters and 



344 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

to say that the only obstacle I find to giving him 
the office of receiver at Montreal was his quality 
of merchant outfitter for the upper country, which 
might render him suspicious to you because of the 
returns he gets in beaver. Although I have a 
pretty good opinion of him to believe his loyalty 
proof against any particular interest, you shall see, 
gentlemen, by the copy of the commission I have 
given him, which is sent you, that it is on condi- 
tion either directly or indirectly to do no traffic in 
the upper country, and to confine himself either to 
marine trade or other inland commerce, to which 
he has agreed, but nevertheless has represented to 
me that being engaged as a partner with M. La- 
marque, another merchant, for the working out 
of the post named "the Western Sea" and that 
of the Sioux ; this partnership only terminating in 
1737; that he was looking around to sell his 
share, but, if this thing was impossible requesting 
me to kindly allow him to continue until that term, 
past which he would cease all commerce in the 
upper country. I agreed to this arrangement on 
account of his good qualities, and this will not turn 
to any account of consequence ; whatever, selec- 
tion you may make, gentlemen, you will not find 
a better one in this country. 

M. de La Gorgendiere having offered me his 
son to act as clerk to M. Gamelin and comptroller 
in the Montreal office, for the auditing to be made, 
without increasing on that score the expenditure of 
your administration, I have consented on these 
conditions ; M. Gamelin to give him 800 Hvres 
(shillings) on the commission of one per cent 
the company allow the receiver at Montreal, and 



APPENDIX 345 

M. Dainc has assured me he was satisfied with his 
work. 

I will not entertain, you, messieurs, with the 
discussion of the account to be rendered by M. 
Duplessis, M. Radisson's heir, to your agent, 
who claims he owes 5 to 6000 livres. Those 
discussions did not take place in my presence. 

Most of the beaver shipped this year were put 
up in bundles, and shortage in cotton cloth for 
packing prevented shipment of the whole. 

The disturbances which have occurred for some 
years in the upper country have effectively pre- 
vented the Indians from hunting ; the post of the 
Bay which abounds ordinarily with beaver, pro- 
duced nothing ; those of Detroit and Michilimaki- 
nac, only furnished very little. Happily the post 
of the Sioux and of the Western Sea produced 
near to 100,000 which swelled up the receipt ; 
otherwise it would have been verv middling. 

The party commanded by M. Desnovelles 
against the Indians Sakis and Foxes was not as 
successful as expected on account of the desertion 
and retreat of 100 Hurons and Iroquois who left 
him when at the Kakanons (Kiskanons of Michili- 
makinac?) without his being able to hold them, so 
that this officer found himself after a long tramp 
at those indians' fort, not only inferior in numbers 
but also much in want of provisions. He was 
under the necessity of returning after a rather 
sharp skirmish which took place between some ot 
his men and the enemy. We lost two French- 
men and one of our indians ; the Foxes and Sakis 
lost 21 men, cither killed, wounded or captured. 

If the Sakis come back to the Bav, as thev 



346 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

pledged themselves to M. Desnoyelles we are in 
hopes here that peace will again flourish and con- 
sequently the trade of the upper country. 

I have seen, gentlemen, what you were pleased 
to say as to reduction in price on the summer- 
beaver. I had been assured by reliable persons 
that this reduction might become very injurious to 
your commerce. I have learned that some of this 
kind of beaver were carried to the English who 
pay two livres (shillings) for one and at a higher 
price than you pay over your counters. It was 
from what you wrote me in 1732, that the hatters 
could make no use of that beaver, that at your re- 
quest I published an ordinance of the 4th January, 
1733, reducing the price of summer-beaver either 
green (gras) or dry (sec) to ten pence a pound, 
on condition that it should be burned. There could 
be nothing suspicious in that. But since you now 
deem that that reduction may be harmful, as I have 
also had in mind to invite the indians and even 
the French under this pretence to take the good 
as well as the bad beaver to the English ; I will 
restore the price of the summer-beaver as it was 
before my ordinance. I will not be at a loss for a 
cause : it is not in your interest to give a lower 
price. You run your commerce, gentlemen, with 
too much good faith to give rise to suspicion that 
you wished for a reduction in price to 10 pence 
for this kind of beaver, and having it burned only 
to procure it yourself at that price and not burn 
it. Besides, the quantity received is too small a 
matter to deserve consideration. 

M. the marquis de Beauharnois and I have re- 
ceived the orders of the King with reference to 



APPENDIX 347 

Heaver hats half beavcr hats half worked made in Canada. His 
.vorked made in the Majesty has ordered us to break up the workmen's 
"""^'^" benches and to prevent any manufacture of hats. 

We have made some representations on this subject, 
to those made to us, namely by a man named 
, hatter, and your receiver at Quebec. 
It is true that the making of beaver hats half 
worked and other for export to France could turn 
out of consequence in ruining your privilege and 
the hat establishments in France. These are the 
only inconveniences, to my mind, to be feared, as 
I do not look upon such, the making of hats for 
the use of residents of the country. So that we 
have satisfied ourselves, until further orders, to for- 
bid the going, out of the colony, of all kind of 
hats, as }ou will see by the ordinance we have 
pubhshed together, M. the General and I. If we 
had been more strict, the three hatters established 
in this colony, who know no other business than 
their trade, the man amongst others, 

who follow that calling from father to son, would 
have been reduced to begging. 

The quantity of hats they will manufacture 
when export is stopped, cannot be of any injury 
to the manufactures of the kingdom and be but of 
small matter to your commerce. Moreover, I am 
aware that these hatters employ the worst kind of 
beaver, which they get very cheap, and your stores 
at Paris are that much rid of them. 

The cloths you sent this year are of better 
Defects in list of cloth quality than the precedding shipment. Messrs 
*^"'- La Gorgendiere, Daine and Gamelin have ob- 

served on defects which happen in the lists ; 
they told me they would inform you. 



348 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 



Remittance of 300 
livres (shillings) to 
the Baron de Lon- 
gueuil. 



Foreign trade ; Beaver 
at trade at Labrador. 



I have the honor to thank you, gentlemen, 
for the remittance of 300 livres you were pleased 
to grant to M. the Baron of Longueuil, on my 
recommendation. 

It is very difficult to prevent the Indians going 
to Chouaguen ; the brandy that the English give 
out freely is an invincible attraction. 

I have heard, the same as you, that some 
Frenchmen disguised as Indians had been there ; if 
I can discover some one, you may be sure that I 
will deal promptly with them. You may have 
heard that the man LENOIR, resident of Mon- 
treal, having gone to England three years ago 
without leave, I have kept him in prison till he had 
settled the fine he was condemned to pay, and 
which I transferred to the hospitals. I add that 
a part of the interest you have in the Indians not 
going to Chouaguen, I have another on account of 
the trading carried on for the benefit of the King 
at Niagara and at fort Frontenac which that English 
post has ruined. By all means you may rely on 
my attention to break up English trade. I fear I 
may not succeed in this so long as the brandy traffic, 
although moderate, will find adversaries among 
those who govern consciences. 

I will do my best to prevent the beaver which 
is traded at Labrador and the other posts in the 
lower part of the River to be smuggled to France 
by ships from Bavonne, St Malo and Marseille. 
This will be difficult as we cannot have at those 
posts any inspector. I will try, however, to give 
an ordinance so as to prevent that, which may 
intimidate some of those who carry on that com- 
merce. 



APPENDIX 



349 



It is true that the commandants of the upper 
country posts have relaxed in the sending of the 
declarations made or to be made by the voyageurs 
as to the quantity and quality of the bundles of 
beaver they take down to Montreal. M. the 
General and I have renewed the necessary orders 
on this subject so that the commandants shall con- 
form to them. 

M. Michel, my subdelegate at Montreal has 
Asks for continuation received the bounty of 500 livres you have re- 
of gratuity received quested your agent to pay to him ; he hopes that 
y r. ic e , e\en ^^^ ^^,jjj ^^ pleased to have it continued next year. 
I have the honor to pray you to do so, and even 
augment it, if possible. I can assure you, gentle- 
men that he lends himself on all occasions to all 
that may concern your commerce. As for mvself, 
I am very flattered by the opinion you entertain 
that I have at heart your interests. I always feel 
a true satisfaction in renewing you these assurances. 
I am, respectfully. 



to increase it. 



Gentlemen, M. de La Gorgendiere has de- 
Thanks for the coffee livered to me on your behalf, a bale ot Moka coffee, 
s^"^' I am very sensible, gentlemen, to this token of 

friendship on your part. 

I have the honor to thank you, and to assure 
you that I am verv trulv and respectfully, etc. 
(signed; HOCyUART. 



350 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

APPENDIX E 
MEMORANDUM RE CANADA 

(No locality) 1697 

All the discoveries in America were only made step by step and 
little by little, especially those of lands held by the French in that part 
of the North. 

It being certain that during the reign of king Francis I, several of 
his subjects, amateurs of shipping and of discoveries, in imitation of the 
Portuguese and the Spaniards, made the voyage, where they found the 
great cod bank. The quality of birds frequenting this sea where they 
always find food, caused them to heave the lead, and bottom was found 
and the said great bank. 

He got an opinion on the nearest lands, and other curious persons 
desired to go farther, and discovered Cape Breton, Virginia and Florida. 
Some even inhabited and took possession of the divers places, aban- 
doned since, through misunderstanding of the commanders and their 
poor skill in knowing how to keep on good terms with the Indians of 
those countries, who, good natured all at the beginning, could not 
suffer the rigor with which it was wanted to subjugate them, so that 
after a short occupation, they left to return to Europe. And since, the 
Spaniards and the English successfully have taken possession of the land 
and all the coasts that the said English have kept until this day to much 
advantage, so that Frenchmen who have returned since have been 
obliged to settle at Cape Breton and Acadia. 

About the year i 540, the said Cape Breton was fortified by Jacques 
Cartier, captain of St Malo, who afterward entered the river St. Law- 
rence up to 7 or 8 leagues above Quebec, where desiring to know more, 
the season also being too far advanced he stopped oif to winter at a 
small river which bears his name and which forms the boundary of 
M. de Becancourt's land whom he knew ; he made sociable a number 
of Indians who came aboard his ship and brought back beaver pretty 
abundantly. 



APPENDIX 351 

Since, he made another voyage with Saintonge men which did not 
prevent several other ships to go after the said beaver ; men from Dieppe, 
Brittany and La Rochelle, some with a passport and others by fraud 
and piracy, especially the latter, the Civil war having carried away 
persons out of dutifulness, the Admiralty and the Marine being then 
held in very little consideration, which lasted a long time. 

However, I believe for having heard it said, that the lands after new 
discoveries were given since to M. Chabot or to M. Ventadour, 
where a certain gentleman from Saintonge named M. du Champlain, 
had very free admittance and who may have mingled with those of his 
country who had navigated with Cartier and had given him a longing 
to see that of which he had only heard speak. 

He was a proper man for such a scheme ; a great courage, wisdom, 
sensible, pious, fair and of great experience ; a robust body which would 
render him indefatigable and capable to resist hunger, cold and heat. 

This gentleman then solicited permission to come to Canada and ob- 
tained it. His small estate and his friends supplied him with a medium 
sized vessel for the passage. This new commandant or governor pitied 
much the Indians and had the satisfaction at his arrival to see that he 
was much feared and loved by them. He took memoranda through 
his interpreter of their wars, their mode of living and of their interests. 
At that time they were numerous and proud of the great advantages they 
had over the Iroquois, their enemy. With this information he re- 
crossed to France ; gave an account of his voyage, and was so charmed 
with the land, the climate and of the good which would result from a 
permanent establishment that he persuaded his wife to accompany him. 
His example induced missionaries of St Francois and some parisian 
families to follow him. He was granted a commission or governor's 
provisions to take his living from the country. 

He erected a palissade fort at the place now occupied by the fort 
St Louis of Quebec. 

To please the indians he went with them and three Frenchmen 
only, warring in the Iroquois country, which has no doubt given rise 
to our quarrel with this nation. 



^S2 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

The Commerce was then in the hands of the Rochelois (?) who 
supplied some provisions to the said M. de Champlain, a man without 
interest and disposed to be content with little. 

He returns to France in the interests of the country and took back 
Madam his wife who died in a Ursuline convent, at Saintes, I believe, 
and he at Quebec, after having worked hard there, with little help 
because of the misfortunes of France. 

M. the Cardinal of Richelieu have inspired France with confidence 
by the humiliation of the Rochelois (?) wanted to take care of the 
marine and formed at that time, about 1626 or 1627 what was then 
called the "Society of One Hundred," in which joined persons of all 
qualifications, and also merchants from Dieppe and Rouen. Dieppe 
was then reputed for good navigators and for navigation. 

The said M. the Cardinal got granted to the said company the 
islands of St Christophe, newly discovered and all the lands of Canada. 
The Company composed of divers states did not take long to disjoin, 
and of this great Company several were formed by themselves, the 
ones concerning themselves about the Isles and the others about Canada, 
where they were also divided up in a Company of Miscou, which is 
an island of the Bay in the lower part of the River, where all the 
indians meet, and a Company ot Tadoussac or Quebec. 

The Basques, Rochelois, Bretons, and Normans, who during the 
disorders of the war had commenced secretly on the River, crossed their 
commerce much by the continuation of their runs without passport. 
Sometimes on pretext of cod or whale fishing, notwithstanding the 
interdiction of decrees, the gain made them risk everything, as the two 
sides of the river were all settled and many more came down from 
inland. 

Those Companies for being badly served on account of inexperience 
and through poor economy, as will happen at the beginning of all 
affairs, were put to large experrses. 

The English had already seized on Boston abandoned by the French 
after their new discovery ; beaver and elk peltry were much sought 
after and at a very high price in Europe ; they could be had for a 



APPENDIX 3S3 

needle, a hawk-hell or a tin looking-glass, a marked copper coin. 
Our possession was there very well-off. The English who made war 
to us in France, also made it in Canada, and began to take the fleet 
about He Percee, as it was ascending to Quebec. 

As four or five \essels came every year loaded with goods for the 
Indians, it was at that time quantity of peas, plums, raisins, figs and 
others and provisions for M, de Champlain ; a garrison of I 5 or 20 
men ; a store in the lower town where the clerks of the Company 
lived with 10 or 12 families already used to the country. This suc- 
cor failing, much hardship was endured in a country which then 
produced nothing by itself, so that the English presenting themselves 
the next year with their fleet, surrender was obligatory ; the governor 
and the Recollets crossed over to France and the families were treated 
honestly enough. 

Happily in 1628 or 1629, France made it up with England and 
the treaty gave back Canada to the French, when M. de Champlain, 
returned and died some years later. 

Those of the Company of 1 00, who were persons of dignity and 
consideration, living in Paris, thought fit to leave the care and benefits 
of commerce for Canada with the Rouen and Dieppe merchants, with 
whom joined a few from Paris. They were charged with the payment 
of the governor's appointments, to furnish him with provisions and 
subsistence and to keep up the garrisons of Quebec and Three- Rivers 
where there was also a post on account of the large number of indians 
calling ; to furnish the things necessary for the war ; to pay themselves 
off the product and give account of the surplus to the directors of the 
Company who had an office at Paris. 

It has been said that Dieppe and Rouen benefitted and that Paris 
suffered and was disgusted. 

To M, de Champlain succeeded M. de Montmagny, very wise 
and very dignified ; knight of Malta ; relative of M. de Poinsy, who 
commanded at the Island of St Christophe where the said M. de 
Montmagny died after leaving Canada after a sojourn of 14 or 15 
years, loved and cherished by the French and the natives — we say the 
2 A 



354 



PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 



French, although the complaints made against him by the principals 
were the cause of his sorrow and he resigned voluntarily. 

It is to be remarked that all the commerce was done at Rouen to 
go out through Dieppe on the hearsay and the fine connections that the 
Jesuit Fathers who had taken the Recollets' place, took great care to 
have printed and distributed every year. 

Canada was in vogue and several families from Normandy and the 
Perche took sail to come and reside in it ; there were nobles, the most 
of them poor, we might say, who found out from the first, that M. 
de Montmagny was too disinterested to be willing to consider the 
change they desired for their advantage. They intrigued against him 
five or six families without the participation of the others, got leave 
from him to go to France to ask for favors and there had one of them- 
selves as governor; obtained liberty in the beaver trade, which until 
then had been strictly forbidden to the inhabitants who had been 
reserved the fruits of the country to advance the culture of the land 
such as pease, Indian corn, and wheat bread. That was the first title 
of the inhabitants to trade with the Indians. 

To arrive at that end they promised to pay annually looo beaver 
to the Paris office for its seignorial right which it did not receive 
through its attention and management of its afi^airs. 

They got permission to form a Board from their principal men, to 
transact with the governor all matters in the country for peace, for war, 
the settlement of accounts of their society or little republic, and also 
sitting on cases concerning interests of private individuals. 

It was then that to keep up this sham republic or society, a tax of 
one-fourth was imposed on the export of beaver. 

Bv these means the authority of the Company and its store were 
ruined and the whole was turning to the advantage of those four or 
six families, the others, either poor or slighted by the authority ot 
M. D'Ailleboust, their governor. 

On this footing it was not hard for them to find large credit at 
La Rochelle, because loans were made in the name of the Com- 
munity, although it consisted only of these four or six families ; 



APPENDIX 355 

which from their being poor found themselves in large managements 
enlarged their household, ran into expense, that of their vessels and 
shipments was excessive and the wealth derived from the beaver was 
to pay all. 

Their bad management altered their credit and brought them to 
agree, after several years' enjoyment so as not to pay La Rochelle, to 
take their ships to Havre-de-Grace, where, on arrival they sold 
to Messrs Lick and Tabac ; this perfidy which they excused because 
of the large interest taken from them, alarmed La Rochelle who com- 
plained to Paris, and after much pressing a trustee was appointed to 
give bonds in the name of the society for large sums yet due to the city 
of La Rochelle. 

Their vessels all bore off to Normandy ; they took on their car- 
goes there in part, and part at La Rochelle, the trade having been 
allowed those two places, because Rouen and Dieppe had several per- 
sons on the roll of the Company and obligation was due La Rochelle 
for having loaned property. 

The governor and the families addressed reproaches to each other, 
and the King being pleased to listen to them, had the kindness to ap- 
point from the body of the company persons of first dignity to give 
attention to what was going on in this colony, who were called Com- 
missioners ; they were Messrs de Morangis, de la Marguerid, Vertha- 
mont and Chame, and since, Messrs de Lamoignon, de Boucherat 
and de Lauzon, the latter also of the body of the Company offered to 
pass over to this country to arrange the difficulties, and he asked for its 
government, which was accorded him. 

He embarked at La Rochelle because of the obligation of the cred- 
itors of that city to treat him gently ; Rouen did not care much. He 
was a literary man ; he made friends with the R. F. Jesuits, and 
created a new council in virtue of the powers he had brought, rebuke 
the one and the other place, even the inhabitants, in forbidding them 
to barter in what was called the limits of Tadoussac, which he bounded 
for a particular lease as a security for his payment and of what has 
alwavs since been called the offices of the countrv or the state of the 



3S6 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

33,000 livres ; the emoluments of the Councillors, the garrison, the 
Jesuits, the Parish, the Ursulines, the Hote-Dieu, etc. 

The pretext given was that the Iroquois having burned and ruined 
the Hurons or Ottawa, the tax of one-fourth did not produce enough 
to meet those demands, and because Tadoussac also was not sufficient 
to meet all the expenditure contemplated to give war to the Iroquois, he 
it was also who began in not paying the thousand weight in beaver 
owing for seignorial right to the Company who was irritated and 
blamed his conduct, and after the lapse of some years his friends write 
him they could not longer shield him he anticipated his recall in return- 
ing to France, where he has since served as sub-dean of the Council, 
residing at the cloister of Notre-Dame with his son, canon at the said 
church. 

I only saw him two years in Canada where he was hardly liked, by 
reason of the little care he took to keep up his rank, without servant, 
living on pork and peas like an artisan or a peasant. 

However, having decided to go back, for a second time he threw 
open the Tadoussac trade, by an order of his Council. 

M. de Lamoignon, the first president, got named to replace him, 
M. D'Argenson, young man of 30 to 32 years steady as could be, 
who remained four or five years to the satisfaction of everybody ; he 
kept up the Council as it is intended for the security of his emoluments 
and of the garrison, selected twelve of the most notable persons to 
whom he gave the faculty of trading at Tadoussac and all the sureties 
to be wished for the administration and maintenance. 

He had the misfortune to fall out with the Jesuit Fathers, and they, 
with messieurs de Mont Royal, of St Sulpice who had sent Mr 
the abbey de Oueysac, in the hope of making a bishop of him ; the 
former wishing to have one of their nomination presented to the Queen- 
mother of the reigning King, whom God preserve, M. de Laval, to- 
day elder and first bishop, who, very rigid, not only backed the Jesuits 
against the governor in all difficulties but specially in the matter of the 
liquor traffic with the Indians. Although (D'Argenson) a much God- 
fearing-man he had his private opinions, and this offended him ; he 



APPENDIX 357 

asked M. dc Lamoignon for his recall, which was done in 1661, when 
M. d'Avaugour came out. 

It was in 1660 that the Office in Paris, at the request of the gov- 
ernor, of the Local council and on the advice of Messrs de Lamoignon, 
Chame and other commissioners made an agreement with the Rouen 
merchants to supply the inhabitants with all goods they would require 
with (yo^o profit on dry goods and 100^ on liquors, freight paid. 

It was pretended that the country was not safely secured by ships 
of private parties, and that when they arrived alone by unforeseen ac- 
cidents, they happened unexpectedly, to the ruin of the country ; as 
well as the beaver fallen to a low price and which was restored only 
at the marriage of the king should keep up. 

The creditors then pressing payment of their claims, a decree or- 
dered that of the 60%, 10^ should be taken for the payment of 
debts which were fixed at 10,000 livres at the rate of the consump- 
tion of the time and of which the Company of Normandy took charge. 

The country was favorable enough to this treaty because they were 
well served, but when the treaty arrived at first, the bishop who was 
jealous because he had not been consulted and that some little gratifica- 
tion had been given to facilitate matters had it opposed by some of the 
inhabitants and by M. D'Avaugour, governor in the place of the said 
D'Argenson. 

The Society of Normandy consented to the breaking off of the treaty 
on receiving a minute account and being paid some compensation, as to 
which they had no satisfaction because of the changes, for M. D'Avau- 
gour, like the others, fell out with the Bishop who went to France and 
had him revoked, presenting in his stead M. de Mezy, a Norman 
gentleman who did nothing better than to overdo all the difficulties arising 
on the question of the Bishop and the Governor's powers. 

The beaver dropped down, as soon, to a low price, and there was a 
difference by half when the King in 1664 formed the Company of the 
^^'cst Indies, which alone, to the exclusion of all others, had to supply 
the country with merchandise and receive also all the beaver ; in 1669, 
came M. de Tracv, de Courcelles and Talon ; the latter did not want 



358 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

any Company and employed all kinds of ways to ruin the one he found 
established. He gave to understand to M. Colbert that this country 
was too big to be bounded ; that there should come out of it fleets and 
armies ; his plans appeared too broad, still he met with no contradiction 
at first, on the contrary he was lauded, which moved him to establish a 
large trade and put out that of the company, which through bad success 
in its affairs at the Isles, was relaxing enough of itself in all sorts of 
undertakings. 

M. Talon desiring to bring together the government and the super- 
intendence was spending on a large scale to make friends and therefore 
there was not a merchant when the Company quit who could transact 
any business in his presence ; he gets his goods free of dues, freight and 
insurance ; he also refused to pay the import tax on his wines, liquors 
and tobacco. 

Finally his friends or enemies told him aloud that it was of profits of 
his commerce that the King would be enriched. 

They fell out, M. de Courcelles and he ; their misunderstanding 
forced the first to ask for his discharge. M. de Frontenac, who suc- 
ceeded him also complained and I believe he returned to France without 
his conge whence he never came back although he had promised so to 
all his friends. 

You are aware as well as and perhaps better than I of the disputes 
of M. de Frontenac and M. du Chesneau. 

And that is all I have been told for my satisfaction of what occurred 
previous to 1655 when I came here to attend to the affairs of the 
Rouen Company. 

I have also learned at the time of my arrival that properly speaking, 
though there were a very large number of Indians, known under divers 
names, which they bear with reference to certain action that their chiefs 
had performed or with reference to lakes, rivers, lands or mountains 
which they inhabit, or sometimes to animals stocking their rivers and 
forests, nevertheless they could all be comprised under two mother lan- 
guages, to wit : the Huron and the Algonquin. 

At that period, I was told, the Huron was the most spread over men 



APPENDIX 



359 



and territory, and at present, I believe, that the Algonquin can well be 
compared to it. 

To note, that all the indians of the Algonquin language are stationed 
and occupy land that we call land of the North on account of the River 
which divides the country into two parts, and where they all live by 
fishing and hunting. 

As well as the indians of the Huron language who inhabit land to 
the South, where they till the land and winter wheat, horse-beans, 
pease, and other similar seeds to subsist j they are sedentary and the 
Algonquin follow fish and game. 

However, this nation has always passed for the noblest, proudest and 
hardest to manage when prosperous. When the French came here the 
true Algonquin owned land from Tadoussac to Quebec, and I have 
always thought they were issued from the Saguenay. It was a tradition 
that they had expelled the Iroquois from the said place of Quebec and 
neighborhood where they once lived ; we were shown the sites of their 
villages and towns covered by trees of a fresh growth, and now that the 
lands are of value through cultivation, the farmers find thereon tools, 
axes and knives as they were used to make them. 

We must believe that the said Algonquin were really masters over 
the said Iroquois, because they obliged them to move away so far. 

Nobody could tell me anything certain about the origin of their war 
but it was of a more cruel nature between these two nations than between 
the said Iroquois and Hurons, who have the same language or nearly so. 

It is only known that the Iroquois commenced first to burn, impor- 
tuned by their enemies who came to break their heads whilst at work in 
their wilderness ; they imagined that such cruel treatment would give 
them relaxation, and since, all the nations of this continent have used 
fire, with the exception of the Abenakis and other tribes of Virginia. 

These Iroquois having had the best of the fight and reduced the 
Algonquins since our discovery of this country, principallv because their 
pride giving us apprehension about their large number, they would not 
arm themselves until a long time after the Dutch had armed the Iroquois, 
made war and ruined all the other nations who were not nearlv so 



360 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

warlike as the Algonquin, and after the war, diseases came on that killed 
those remaining ; some have scattered in the woods, but in comparison 
to what I have seen on my arrival, one might say that there are no 
more men in this country outside of the fastnesses of the forests recently 
discovered. 

The Hurons before their defeat by the Iroquois had, through the hope 
of their conversion obliged the Jesuits to establish with them a strong 
mission, and as from time to time it was necessary to carry to them 
necessities of life, the governors began to allow some of their servants 
to run up there every three or four years, from where they brought that 
good green (gras) Huron beaver that the hatters eek for so much. 

Sometimes this was kept up ; sometimes no one offered for the voyage 
there being then so little greediness it is true that the Iroquois were 
so feared ; M. de Lauson was the only one to send two individuals in 
1656 who each secured 14 to 15,000 livres and came back with an 
Indian fleet worth 100,000 crowns. However, M. D'Argenson who 
succeeded him and was five years in the country sent nobody neither 
did Messrs Avaugour and de Mezy. 

It was consequently after the arrival of M. Talon that under pretext 
of discovery, and of finding copper mines, he alone became director of 
those voyages, for he obliged M. de Courcelles to sign him conges 
which he got worked, but on a dispute between the workers he handled 
some himself, of which I remember. 

You know the number and the regulations given under the first ad- 
ministration of M. the Earl of Frontenac. 

It is certain that it is the holders of conges who look after and bring 
down the beaver, and, can it be said that it is wrong to have an abun- 
dance of goods. 

The French and the indians have come down this year ; the re- 
ceipts of the office must total up 200 millions or thereabouts, which 
judging from your letter, will surprise those gentlemen very much. 
The clerks have rejected it as much as they liked ; I am told that they 
admitted somewhere about six thousands of muscovy ; during our ad- 
ministration there were 28 or 30 thousands received, which is a large 



APPENDIX 361 

difference without taking into account other qualities, and all this does 
not give the French much trouble, and at the most for the year we 
were not informed. I have given my sentiments to the meeting, and 
in particular to M. de Frontenac and to M. de Champigny. 

We should be agreeable to our Prince's wishes who is doing so 
much good to this country : his tenants who must supply him in such 
troubled times, lose, and it is proper that people in Canada contribute 
something to compensate them by freely agreeing to a prcttv rich re- 
ceipt on their commodity but what resource in regard to the Indian so 
interested that everything moves with him, through necessity ; they are 
asked and sought after to receive English goods, infinitely better than 
ours, at a cost half as low and to pay their beaver very high. 

This commercial communication gives them peace with their ene- 
mies and liberty to hunt, and consequently to live in abundance instead 
of their living at present with great hardship. Should we not say that 
it requires a great affection not to break away in the face of such strong 
attractions ; if we lose them once we lose them for ever, that it is cer- 
tain, and from friends they become our enemies ; thus we lose not 
only the beaver but the colony, and absolutely no more cattle, no more 
grains, no more fishing. 

The colony with all the forces of the Kingdom cannot resist the 
indians when they have the English or other Europeans to supply them 
with ammunitions of war, which leads me to the querv : what is the 
beaver worth to the English that they seek to get it by all means ? 

Jf also the rumors set agoing are true the farmers-general would 
not sell a considerable part to the Danes at a verv high price, should 
they not have had somebody in their employ who understands and 
knows that article well ; it appears to me that the thing is worth while. 

All the same, people are asking why they want to sell so dear, 
what costs them so little, for taking one and the other, that going out 
this year should not cost them more than 50/ (^sous), the entries, 
Tadoussac, and the tax of one fourth, does it not pay the lease with 
profit. This is in everybody's mind, and everyone looks at it as he 
fancies. 



362 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

I was of opinion to arrange the receipts on a basis that these gentle- 
men got M. Benac to offer, so as to avoid the difficulties on the 
qualities, and this opinion served to examine the loss this proposition 
would bring to the country in the general receipt. 

I have no other interest than the Prince's service, and to please 
these gentlemen I should like to know, heartily, of some expedient, 
because it is absolutely necessary to find one to satisfy the Indian ; M. 
the Earl of Frontenac is under a delusion : I may say it, they will give 
us the goby, and after that all shall be lost, I am not sure even, if they 
would not repeat the Sicilian Vespers, to show their good will, and 
that they never want to make it up. I am so isolated that I do not 
say anything about it, as I am afraid for myself, but I know well that 
it is Indian's nature to betray, and that our affairs are not at all good 
in the upper country. 

To a great evil great remedy. I had said to M. de Frontenac 
that the 25 per cent could be abolished and make it up on something 
else, as it is a question of saving the country, but he did not deem fit 
of anything being said about it. 

I also told him and M. de Champigny that we might treat with a 
Dutchman to bring on a clearance English and Dutch goods which are 
much thought of by our Indians for their good quality and their price, 
that this vessel would not go up the river but stay below at a stated 
place, where we could go for his goods, and give him beaver for his 
rightful lading. 

The company should have the control of these merchandise, so as 
to sell them to the Indians on the base of a tariff, so as to prevent the 
greediness of the voyageurs which contributes very much to the discon- 
tent of the natives, because at first the French only went to the Hurons 
and since to Michilimakinac where they sold to the Indians of the locality, 
who then went to exchange with other Indians in distant woods, lands 
and rivers, but now the said Frenchmen holding permits to have a 
larger gain pass over all the Ottawas and Indians of Michilimakinac to 
go themselves and find the most distant tribes which displeased the 
former very much. 



APPENDIX 263 

This has led to fine discoveries and four or five hundred young men 
of Canada's best men are employed at this business. 

Through them we have become acquainted with several Indian's 
names we knew not, and 4 and 500 leagues farther away, there are 
other Indians unknown to us. 

Down the Gulf in French Acadia, we have always known the 
Abenakis and Micmacs. 

On the north shore of the River, from Seven islands up we have 
always known the Papinachois, Montagnais, Poissons Blancs, (White 
Fish), (these being in what is called limits of Tadoussac), Mistassinis, 
Algonquins. 

At Quebec 

There are Hurons, remains of the ancient Hurons, defeated by the 
Iroquois, in Lake Huron. 

There is also south of the Chaudiere (River), five leagues from 
Quebec, a large village of christian Abenakis. 

The Hurons & Abenakis are under the Jesuit Fathers. 

These Hurons have staid at Quebec so as to pray God more con- 
veniendy and without fear of the Iroquois. 

The Abenakis pray God with more fervor than any Indians of these 
countries. I have seen and been twice with them when warring ; 
they must have faith to believe as thev do and their exactitude to live 
well according to principles of our religion. Blessed be God ! They 
are very good men at war and those who have give and still give so 
much trouble to the Bostoners. 

At Three-Rivers 
Wolves and Algonquins both sides of the river. 

At Montroyal or \ ille-Marie 

There are Iroquois of the five nations who have left their home to 
pray ( everyone is free to believe) but it is certain that threefourths have 
no other motive nor interest to stay with us than to pray. 



364 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

There are, then, Senecas, Mohawks, Cayugas, Wyandotts, Oneida 
partly on the mountain of Mont-Royal under the direction of Messrs of 
St Sulpice, and partly at the Sault (Recolletj south side, that is to sav, 
above the rapids, under the R. F. Jesuits, whose mission is larger than 
St Sulpice' s. 

I 50 leagues from Mont Royal the Grand River leading to the Otta- 
was ; to the north are the Temiscamingues, Abitiby, Outanloubys, who 
speak Algonquin. 

At lake Nepissing, the Nipissiniens, Algonquin language, always 
going up the Grand River. 

In lake Huron, 200 leagues from Montreal, the Mississagues and 
Amikoues : Algonquins. 

At Michilimackinac, the Negoaschendaching or people of the Sable, 
Ottawas, Linago Kikacons or Cut Tail, the men from Forked Lake 
Onnasaccoctois, the Hurons, in all 1000 men or thereabouts half Huron 
and half Algonquin language. 

In the Michigan or lake Illinois, north side, the Noquets, Algon- 
quins, Malomini (Menomeenee), or men of the Folle-Avoine : different 
language. 

South of Puants (Green) Bay 

The Wanebagoes otherwise Puans, because of the name of the Bay; 
language different from the two others. 

The Sakis, 3 leagues from the Bay, and Pottewatamis, about 200 
warriors. 

Towards lake Illinois, on River St Joseph, the Miamis or men of 
the Crane who have three different languages, though they live together. 
United they would form about 600 men. 

Above the Bay, on Fox river, the Ottagamis, the Mascoutins and 
the Kicapoos : all together i 200 men. 

At Maramegue river where is situated Nicholas Perrot's post, are 
some more Miamis numbering five to six hundred; always the same 
language. 



APPENDIX 365 

The Illinois inidwav on the Illinois river making 5 to 6 different 
villages, making in all 2000 men. 

We traffic with all these nations who are all at war with the Iroquois. 

In the lower Missipy there are several other nations very numerous 
with whom we have no commerce and who are trading yet with 
nobody. 

Above Missoury river which is of the Mississippi below the river 
Illinois, to the south, there are the Mascoutins Nadoessioux, with 
whom we trade, and who are numerous. 

Sixty leagues above the missisipi and St Anthony of Padua Fall, 
there is lake Issaquy otherwise lake of Buade, where there are 23 vil- 
lages of Sioux Nadoessioux who are called Issaquy, and beyond lake 
Oettatous, lower down the auctoustous, who are Sioux, and could 
muster together 4000 warriors. Because of their remoteness they only 
know the Iroquois from what they heard the French say. 

In lake Superior, south side are the saulteurs who are called Ouchijoe 
(objibway), Macomili, Ouxcinacomigo, Mixmac and living at Cha- 
goumigon, it is the name of the country, the Malanas or men of the 
Cat-fish ; 60 men ; always the Algonquin language. 

Michipicoten, name of the land ; the Machacoutiby and Openda- 
chiliny, otherwise Dung-heads ; lands' men ; algonquin language. 

The Picy is the name of a land of men, way inland, who come to 
trade. 

Bagoasche, also name of a place of men of same nation who come 
also to trade 200 and 300 men. 

Osepisagny river being discharge of lake Asemipigon ; sometimes 
the Indians of the lake come to trade ; thev are called Kristinos and the 
nation of the Great Rat. These men are Algonquins, numbering more 
than 2000, and also go to trade with the English of the north. 

There are too the Chichigoe who come sometimes to us, sometimes 
north to the English. 

Towards West-Northwest, it is nations called Fir-trees ; numerous; 
all their traffic is with the English. 

All those north nations are rovers, as was said, living on fish and 



266 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

game or wild-oats which is abundant on the shores of their lalces and 
rivers. 

In lake Ontario, south side, the five Iroquois nations ; our enemies ; 
about I 200 warriors live on Indian corn and by hunting. 

We can say, that, of all the Indians they are the most cruel during 
war, as during peace they are the most humane, hospitable, and socia- 
ble; they are sensible at their meetings, and their behaviour resembles 
much to the manners of republics of Europe. 

Lake Ontario has 200 leagues in circumference. 

Lake Erie above Niagara 250 leagues ; lakes Huron and Michigan 
joined 552 leagues : to have access to these three lakes by boat, there 
is only the portage of Niagara, of two leagues, above the said lake 
Ontario. 

All those who have been through those lakes say they are terrestrial 
paradises for abundance of venison, game, fishing, and good quality of 
the land. 

From the said lakes to go to lake Superior there is only one portage 
of 15 (?) The said lake is 500 leagues long in a straight line, from 
point to point, without going around coves nor the bays of Michi- 
picoten and Kaministiquia. 

To go from lake Superior to lake Asemipigon there is only 1 5 
leagues to travel, in which happen seven portages averaging 3 good 
leagues ; the said lake has a circumference of 280 leagues. 

From lake Huron to lake Nipissing there is the river called French 
River, 25 leagues long ; there are 3 portages ; the said lake has 60 to 
80 leagues of circumference. 

Lake Assiniboel is larger than lake Superior, and an infinity ot 
others, lesser and greater have to be discovered, for which I approve 
of M. the Marquis of Denonville's saying, often repeated : — that the 
King of France, our monarch was not high lord enough to open up 
such a vast country, as we are only beginning to enter on the confines 
of the immensity of such a great country. 

The road to enter it is by the Grand River and lake Ontario by 
Niagara, which should be easy in peaceful times in establishing families 



II 



APPENDIX 367 

at Niagara for the portage, and building boats on Lake Erie. I did 
not find that a difficult thing, and I want to do it under M. the 
Marquis of Denonville, who did not care, so soon as he perceived that 
his war expedition had not succeeded. 

I have given vou in this memorandum the names of the natives 
known to us and with whom our wood rovers (coureurs de bois) have 
traded ; my information comes from some of the most experienced. 

The surplus of the memorandum will serve to inform you that prior 
to M. de Tracy, de Courcelle and Talon's arrival, nothing was regu- 
lated but by the governor's will, although there was a Board ; as they 
were his appointments and that by appearances, only his creatures got 
in, he was the absolute master of it and which was the cause that the 
Colony and the inhabitants suffered very much at the beginning. 

M. de Tracy on his arrival by virtue of his commission dismissed 
the Board and the Councillors, to appoint another one with mem- 
bers chosen by himself and the Bishop, which existed until the 2nd and 
3rd vear of M. de Frontenac's reign, who had them granted at Court, 
provisions by a decree for the establishment of the Council. 

It is only from that time that the King having given the country 
over to the gentlemen of the Co'y of West Indies, the tax of one fourth 
and the Tadoussac trade were looked upon as belonging to the Com- 
pany, and since to the King, because M. Talon, who crippled as much 
as he could, this company dare not touch to these two items ot the 
Domain, of which the enjoyment remained to them until cessation of 
their lease. 

So, it was in favor of this company that all the regulations were 
granted in reference to the limits and working out of Tadoussac as 
well as to prevent cheating on the beaver tax. 

Tadoussac is leased to six gentlemen for the sum of yearly ; 

I took shares for one fourth, as it was an occasion to dispose of some 
goods and a profit to everyone of at most 20 yearly. 

About beavers there is no fraud to be feared, everybody preferring 
to get letters of exchange to avoid the great difficulties on going out, 
the entry and sale in France, and of large premiums for the risks ; in a 



368 PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST 

word, no one defrauds nor thinks of it. The office is not large enough 
to receive all the beaver. 

The ships came in very late ; I could not get M. Dumenu the 
secretary to the Board to send you the regulations you ask for the beaver 
trade ; you shall have them, next year, if it pleases God. They con- 
tain prohibition to embark from France under a penalty of 3000 livres' 
fine, confiscation of the goods, even of the ships ; however, under 
the treaty of Normandy, I had a Dieppe captain seized for about 200 
crowns worth of beaver, and the Council here confiscated the vessel, 
and imposed a fine of i 500 livres, on which the captain appealed to 
France, and he obtained at the King's Council, replevin on his ship 
and the fine was reduced to 30 livres. 

As prior to M. Talon nobody sent traders in the woods as explained 
in this memorandum there was not to my knowledge any regulation as 
to the said woods before the decree of 1675. On the contrary I re- 
member that those two individuals under M. de Lauzon's government 
who brought in each for 14. or i 5,000 livres applied to me to be ex- 
empted from the tax of one fourth, because, they said we were obhged 
to them for having brought down a fleet which enriched the country. 

(Not signed.) 



INDEX 



Abenaki Indians, the, 363. 

Ahitil))' huiians, the, 364. 

Acadia, Indian tribes located in, 363. 

Albanel, Charles, Jesuit missionary, 
141; overland trip of, to Hudson 
Bay, 143-146 ; at King Charles 
Fort, 147. 

Albany (Orange), 32 ; Iroquois free- 
booting expedition against, 36-38 ; 
Radisson's escape to, 39-41. 

Algonquin Indian, murder of Mohawk 
hunters by a, 20. 

Algonquin Indians, Radisson and 
Groseillers travel to the West with, 
73-79 ; territory of the, 359 ; wars 
with the Iroquois, 359-360 ; tribes 
of, on Lake Huron, 364. 

AUemand, Pierre, companion of Rad- 
isson, 154. 

Allouez, Pere Claude, 142. 

Amsterdam, Radisson's early visit to, 
42. 

Arctic Ocean, Hearne's overland trip 
to, 257-265 ; arrival at, 265-266 ; 
Mackenzie's trip of exploration to, 
281-2S6. 

Arms, supplied to Mohawks by Dutch, 

9 n.; desire for, cause of Sioux' 
friendliness to Radisson, 1 20, 122. 

Assiniboine Indians, origin of name, 

10 n., 85 ; Radisson learns of, from 
prairie tribes, 85 ; defence of the 
younger Ciroseillers l)y, 184 ; De la 
Verendrye meets the, 2 1 8-221 ; ac- 



company De la Verendrye to the 

Mandans, 223-227 ; Saint-Pierre's 

encounter with, 237. 
Assiniboine River, 218, 219, 221-222. 
Athabasca country, Hearne explores 

the, 268-269. 
Athabasca Lake, Hearne's arrival at, 

268-269. 
Athabasca River, 277. 
Athabascan tribes, Matonabbee and 

the, 249. 
Aulneau, Father, 210, 211 ; killed by 

Indians, 214. 

B 

Baptism of Indian children by Radis- 
son and Groseillers, 92. 

Barren lands, region of " Little 
Sticks," 253-254, 259-260. 

Bath of purification, Indian, 14, 268. 

Bay of the North. See Hudson Bay. 

Bayly, Charles, governor of Hudson's 
Bay Company, 140 ; in Canada, 
140-142 ; encounter with the Jes- 
uit Albanel, 141-142, 147 ; accusa- 
tions against Radisson and Groseil- 
lers, 147-148. 

Bear, Lewis's experience with a, 318. 

Beauharnois, Charles de, governor of 
New France, 201, 203, 235. 

fientLv Homines, Crow Indians, 232. 

Beckworth, prisoner among Missouri 
Indians, 33. 

Belmont, Abbe, cited, 5 n., 98 n. 

Bering, Vitus, 195. 

Bigot, intendant of New France, 236. 



369 



370 



INDEX 



Bird, prisoner of the Blackfeet, 33. 
Bird's egg moon, the (June), 279. 
Blackbird, Omaha chief, grave of, 31 1. 
Bochart, governor of Three Rivers. 

See Duplessis-Kerbodot. 
Boesme, Louis, 70. 
Boissons, drinking matches, 280. 
Boston, Radisson and Groseillers in, 

136. 
Bourassa, voyageur, 213, 
Bourdon, Jean, explorations by, I02, 

134 n. 
Bow Indians, the, I'ii'i-iT,'}). 
Bridgar, John, governor of Hudson's 

Bay Company, 166, 169, 171, 173, 

174, 175, 180. 
Brower, J. V., cited, 88 n. 
Bryce, Dr. George, 6 n., 88 n., 187 n. 
Buffalo-hunts, Sioux, 92 n., 124. 
Button, Sir Thomas, explorations of, 

134 n. 



Cadieux, exploit and death of, 197-198. 

Cameahwait, Snake Indian chief, 324- 
326. 

Cannibalism among Indians, 24, 77. 

Cannibals of the Barren Lands, 255. 

Cape Breton, discovery and fortifica- 
tion of, 350. 

Caribou, Radisson's remarks on, 127. 

Caribou herds in Barren Lands, 255; 
Indian method of hunting, 259. 

Carr, George, letter from, to Lord 
Darlington, I36n. 

Carr, Sir Robert, urges Radisson to 
renounce France, 136. 

Cartier, Jacques, 71, 193, 350-351. 

Cartwright, Sir George, Radisson and 
Groseillers sail with, 136-137; share- 
holder in Hudson's Bay Company, 
140. 

Catlin, cited, 14 n., 226. 

Cayuga Indians, the, 34, 55, 364. 



Chaboneau, guide to Lewis and Clark, 

312, 326, 332- 
Chame, M., commissioner of Company 

of Normandy, 355, 357. 
Champlain, governor in Canada, 351- 

353. 

Charlevoix, mission of, 202. 

Chichigoe tribe of Indians, the, 365. 

Chinook Indians, Lewis and Clark 
friends with, 328. 

Chipewyans, bath of purification prac- 
tised by, 14 n.; Hearne's journey 
with, 257-263; massacre of Eskimo 
by, 263-265. 

Chouart, M., letters of, 335-337. See 
Groseillers, Jean Baptiste. 

Chouart, jMedard. See Groseillers, 
Medard Chouart. 

Ckronicjue TriJInvienne, Suite's, 4 n. 

Clark, William, companion of Meri- 
wether Lewis, 308-309; explora- 
tion of Yellowstone River by, 329; 
hero-qualities of, 2>2i'^-2)2)i- ^^^ 
Lewis. 

Clatsop Indians, Lewis and Clark 
among the, 328. 

Clearwater River, Lewis and Clark 
on the, 327. 

Coal, use of, by Indians, 89. 

Colbert, Radisson pardoned and com- 
missioned by, 148; withholds ad- 
vancement from Radisson, 152; 
summons Radisson and Groseillers 
to France, 176-177; death of, 177. 

Colleton, Sir Peter, shareholder in 
Hudson's Bay Company, 140. 

Colter, frontiersman with Lewis and 
Clark, 332. 

Columbia River, Lewis and Clark 
travel down the, 327. 

Company of Aliscou, the, 352. 

Company of Normandy, the, 354-357. 

Company of the North, the, 151, 154, 
175. 176. 



INDEX 



371 



Company of One Hundred Associates, 

the, 133, 352, 353. 
Conij^any of Tadoussac, the, 352. 
Company of the West Inches, the, 

133, 153; account of formation of, 

357- 

Comporte, M., letter to, from M. 
Chouart, 335-336- 

Coppermine River ("Far-Off-Metal 
River"), 245, 249, 252, 262, 267. 

Copper mines, Radisson receives re- 
ports of, 112, 124; discovery of, 
by Hearne, 267. 

Council Bluffs, origin of name, 31 1. 

Council pipe, smoking the, 16, 29. 

Couture, explorations of, 103, 129-130. 

Couture (the younger), 143. 

Cree Indians, first reports of, 69, 85; 
Radisson's second visit to, 11 2-1 13, 
116; wintering in a settlement of, 
117; a famine among, 118-119; 
De la Verendrye assisted by, 206- 
208. 

Crow Indians, De la Verendrye's sons 
among, 232-233. 

D 

Dablon, Claude, Jesuit missionary, 
103, 134 n., 142. 

D'Ailleboust, M., governor of Com- 
pany of Normandy, 354. 

Dakota, Radisson's explorations in, 
89. 

D'Argenson, Viscomte, governor of 
New France, 99, 129-130, 356-357, 
360. 

D'Avaugour, governor, 104, 105, 107, 

133. '43. 357. 360. 
Death-song, Huron, 24, 54. 
De Casson, DoUier, cited, 5 n., 96 n,, 

98 n. 
De la Galissonniere, governor, 235. 
De la Jon<iuiere, governor, 236. 
De Lanoue, fur-trade pioneer, 204. 



De la Verendrye, Francois, 215, 222, 
229, 230, 233. 

De la Verendrye, Jean Baptist e, 197, 
205, 208-209, 210, 212; murder of, 
by Sioux, 214. 

De la Verendrye, Louis, 215, 229. 

De la Verendrye, Pierre, 215, 222, 
229, 230, 235, 315. 

De la Verendrye, Pierre Ciaultier de 
Varennes, leaves Montreal on search 
for Western Sea (1731), 194-197; 
at Nepigon, 201 ; previous career, 
201-203; traverses Lake Superior 
to Kaministiquia, 204; Fort St. 
Pierre named for, 206; among the 
Cree Indians, 206-208; return to 
Quebec to raise supplies, 210; loss 
of eldest son in Sioux massacre, 
214; explores Minnesota and Mani- 
toba to Lake Winnipeg, 215-216; 
at Fort Maurepas, 217; return to 
Montreal with furs, 218; explores 
valley of the Assiniboine, 219-221; 
visits the Mandan Indians, 224- 
225; takes possession for France of 
the Upper Missouri, 225; super- 
seded by De Noyelles (1746), 235; 
decorated with Order of Cross of 
St. Louis, 235; death at Montreal, 
236. 

De Niverville, lieutenant of Saint- 
Pierre, 236-237. 

Denonville, Marquis of, 336, 366, 367. 

De Noyelles, supersession of De la 
Verendrye by, 235. 

De Xoyon, explorations of, 204. 

Dieppe, merchants of, interested in 
Canada trade, 352, 353. 

Dionne, Dr. N. F., cited, 76 n., 88 n,, 
106 n., 139 n. 

Dog Rib Indians, Mackenzie among, 
283-284. 

Dollard, fight of, against the Irocjuois, 
96-98, 198. 



372 



INDEX 



Dreuillettes, Gabriel, discoveries by, 

70-71, 103, 13411. 
Drewyer, companion of Meriwether 

Lewis, 331. 
Drugging of Indians, 63-64. 
Duchesnau, M. Jacques, 149 n., 358. 
Dufrost, Cliristopher, Sieur de la Jem- 

meraie, 197, 203, 205, 209, 210, 21 1. 
Du Peron, Francois, 47. 
Duplessis-Kerbodot, murder of, by 

Iroquois, 5 n., 19, 45. 
Dupuis, Major, at Onondaga, 46, 55- 

66. 
Dutch, arms supplied to Mohawk 

Indians by, 9 n.; war of, with the 

English, 137-138. 



England, arrival of Radisson and 
Groseillcrs in, 137; effect of war 
between Holland and, on exploring 
propositions, 137-138; Hudson's 
Bay Company organized in, 139— 
140 ; fur-trading expeditions from, 
140-149. See Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany and Radisson. 

Erie Indians, the, 34. 

Eskimo, massacre of, by Chipewyans, 
263-265. 

F 

" Far-Off-Metal River," the, 245, 249, 
252; Hearne reaches the, 262. 

Feasts, Indian, 60, 62-63, 67 n. 

Festins a tout manger, 60, 67 n. 

Fields, companion of Meriwether 
Lewis, 330-331. 

Flathead Indians, assistance given 
Lewis and Clark by, 327, 32S. 

Floyd, Sergeant, of Lewis and Clark's 
expedition, 332. 

Forked River, term applied to Mis- 
sissippi and Missouri rivers, 86, 100; 
Radisson's account of people on 
the, 86-87. 



Fort, Dollard's so-called, at the Long 
Sault, 97; Radisson andGroseillers', 
in the Northwest, 114-115. 

Fort Bourbon (Port Royal), on Hayes 
River, 161-175, 182-186. 

Fort Bourbon, on Saskatchewan, 229. 

Fort Chipewyan, 277. 

Fort Clatsop, Lewis and Clark's win- 
ter quarters, 327-328. 

Fort Dauphin, 229. 

Fort King Charles, 139, 146. 

Fort Lajonquiere, 237. 

I'ort Mandan, stars and stripes hoisted 
at, 312. 

Fort Maurepas, construction, 209; 
description, 216-217; De la Veren- 
drye at, 217. 

Fort Orange, Radisson and the Iro- 
quois at, 36-38; Radisson's escape 
to, 39-41. 

Fort Poskoyac, 229, 235. 

Fort Prince of Wales, building of, 
243; description, 244-245; Hearne 
becomes governor of, 270; surren- 
der and destruction of, 271-272. 

Fort de la Reine, construction of, 222; 
De la Verendrye returns to, after 
visiting Mandans, 228; abandon- 
ment of, 237. 

Fort Rouge, 221. 

Fort St. Charles, 20S-209, 210, 215. 

Fort St. Louis, of Quebec, first forti- 
fication on site of, 351. 

Fort St. Pierre, 206. 

Fort William, 280, 283, 287. 

Eraser River, Mackenzie's explora- 
tions on, 294-302. 

Frog moon, the (May), 279. 

Frontenac, governor of New France, 
154, 358, 360, 361, 362, 367. 

Fur companies of New France, 130, 

133. 15I' 153. 175-176,352-358. 
Fur company, Hudson's Bay. See 
Hudson's Bay Company. 



INDEX 



373 



Fur trade, the French, ioi-i02, 104; 
regulations governing the, 104, 
153 n.; effect of, on development 
of West, 113, 

G 

Gantlet, running the, 15-16. 

Gareau, Leonard, journey and death 
of, 70. 

Garneau, cited, 5 n., 87 n. 

Gillam, Ben, encounters with Radisson, 
163-164, 16S-175. 

Gillam, Zechariah, Radisson's (irst 
transactions with, 135-136 ; Groseil- 
lers' voyage to Hudson Bay with, 
138-139 ; at Rupert River with 
Hudson's Bay Company ship, 14S ; 
active enmity of, tow ard Radisson, 
165-167, 168-169, 171, 176, 180. 

Godefroy, Jean, companion of Radis- 
son, 154. 

Godefroy family, the, 154 n. 

Goose month (April), 253-254. 

Gorst, Thomas, 140 n., 147 n. 

Grand River of the North. See Mac- 
kenzie River. 

Gray, Captain, 308. 

Great Falls of the Missouri, Lewis 
discovers the, 317. 

Great Rat, nation of the, 131, 365. 

Green Bay, western limit of French 
explorations until Radisson, 69 ; 
Radisson's winter quarters at, 79- 
80, 99-100. 

Groseillers, nephew of explorer, title 
of nobility ordered granted to, 142. 

Groseillers, Jean Baptiste, accompa- 
nies Radisson to Hudson Bay 
(1682), 154 ; trip up Hayes River, 
158, 161 ; left in charge of Fort 
Bourl)t)n, 175 ; troubles with In- 
dians and with English, 182-183 ; 
surrenders fort to Radisson, acting 
for Hudson's Bay Company, 184 ; 



letters to mother, 1S4, 335-337; car- 
ried to Fngland by force, 186 ; offer 
from IIutlsi)n's Bay Company, 187. 
Groseillers, Medard Chouart, birth, 
birthplace, and marriage, 45 ; jour- 
ney to Lake N'ijjissing, 71 ; en- 
gages with Radisson in voyage of 
exploration to the West (1658), 71- 
79 ; winter quarters at Green Bay, 
79-80 ; explorations in West and 
Northwest, 80-90 ; return to Que- 
bec, 99 ; second trip to Northwest 
(1661), 103-129 ; imprisoned and 
fined on return to Quebec (1663), 
130 ; goes to France to seek repa- 
ration, 133 ; meets with neglect 
and indifference, 133-134; deceived 
into returning to Three Rivers and 
going to Isle Percee, 135 ; goes to 
Port Royal, N.S., becomes involved 
w-ith Boston sea-captain, and reaches 
England via Boston and Spain 
(1666), 135-137 ; backed by Prince 
Rupert, tits out sl;ip for Hudson 
Bay, and spends year in trading ex- 
pedition (1668-1669), 138-139 ; on 
return to London, created a Knight 
de la Jarreticre, 139 ; second voy- 
age from England (1670), 140 ; in- 
volved with Radisson in suspicions 
of double-dealing, 147-I48 ; in 
meeting of fur traders at Quebec, 
149 ; retires to family at Three 
Rivers, 151 ; summoned by Radis- 
son to join expedition in private 
French interests to Hayes River 
(1681-1682), 153-158; successful 
trade in furs, 158, 167 ; jealousy 
and lawsuits on return to Quebec, 
175-176; summoned to Prance by 
Colbert (1684), 176-177; petition 
for redress of wrongs ignored by 
French court, 179 ; gives up strug- 
gle and retires to Three Rivers, 1 79. 



374 



INDEX 



H 

Hayes, Sir James, iSo, i8i. 

Hayes River, Radisson's canoe trip 
up the, 158-160 ; Fort Bourbon es- 
tablished on, 161 ; Radisson's sec- 
ond visit to, 182-186. 

Hayet, Marguerite, Radisson's sister, 
6 n., 43; death of first husband, 19, 
45 ; marriage with Groseillers, 45 ; 
letters from son, 184, 335-337. 

Hayet, Sebastien, 6 n., 43 n. 

Hearne, Samuel, cited, 14 n.; depar- 
ture from Fort Prince of Wales on 
exploring trip, 249-252; in the 
Barren Lands, 253-255, 259-260 ; 
crosses the Arctic Circle, 261 ; 
discovers the Coppermine River, 
262-263; massacre of Eskimo by 
Indians accompanying, 264-265 ; 
arrival at Arctic Ocean, 265 ; takes 
possession of Arctic regions for 
Hudson's Bay Company, 266-267; 
returns up the Coppermine River 
and discovers copper mines, 267; 
travels in Athabasca region, 268- 
269; returns to Fort Prince of 
Wales, 269; becomes governor of 
post, 270; surrenders fort to the 
French, 271-272. 

Henault, Madeline, Radisson's mother, 
6 n., 43. 

Hudson Bay, overland routes to, 71 ; 
Radisson's early discoveries regard- 
ing, 90-91, 127-128. 

Hudson Bay, Robson's, cited, 139 n., 
140 n., 147 n., 161 n., 166 n. 

Hudson's Bay Company, origin of, 
139-140 ; early expeditions, 140- 
149; distrust of Radisson by, 150; 
contract between Radisson and, 
181-182; final treaty of peace made 
between Indians and, 185 ; poor 
treatment of Radisson by, 188; 



quietly prosperous career of, 241- 
242 ; encroachments of French 
traders, 242-243 ; demand for ac- 
tivity, 243-244; possession taken of 
Arctic regions for, by Hearne, 266- 
267. 

Huron Indians, death songs of, 24, 
54; massacre of Christian, by Iro- 
quois, 50-54; band of, with Dollard, 
against the Iroquois, 97-98 ; terri- 
tory of, 359 ; tribes of, at Michili- 
mackinac, 364. 

Husky dogs, 277. 



Icebergs, Labradorian, 155. 

Iroquois Confederacy, the five tribes 
composing the, 34 ; characteristics 
of, 366. 

Iroquois Indians, murder of inhabit- 
ants of Three Rivers by, 5 n., 19, 
45 ; treatment of prisoners by, 15- 
16, 25-28, 54 ; Radisson's life with, 
16-39 > Frenchmen at Montreal 
scalped by, 48 ; hostages of, held 
at Quebec, 48, 55-56 ; siege of 
Onondaga by, 55-67 ; encounters 
between Algonquins and Radisson 
and, 76-78, 79-80 ; Radisson's 
fight with, on the Grand Sault, 94- 
96 ; Bollard's battle with, 97-98 ; 
Radisson's fights with, on second 
Western trip, 107-108, 109-111 ; 
wars between Algonquins and, 359. 

Isle of Massacres, 50-54. 

Issaguy tribe of Indians, 131 n. 

J 
Jemmeraie, Sieur de la, De la Veren- 

drye's lieutenant, 197, 203, 205, 209, 

210 ; death of, 211. 
Jesuit Kelatio7is, cited, 57 n., 69 n., 

71 n., 73 n., 80 n., 81 n., 82 n., 91 n., 

92 n., 96 n., 141 n. ; quoted, 88. 



INDEX 



375 



Jesuits, in Onondaga expedition, 44- 
67 ; lives of Iro<]uuis saved liy, 65 ; 
start with Radisson and Groseillers 
on first Western expedition, 73; 
turn hack to Montreal, 77. 

Jogues, Father, 4, 56, 68, 69. 

Jolliet, 84 n., 149, 151. 



Kaministiquia, fur post at, 204. 

Kickapoo Indians, location of, 364. 

King Charles Fort. See Fort King 
Charles. 

Kirke, Mary, marriage with Radisson, 
13S; becomes a Catholic, 152. 

Kirke, Sir John, shareholder in Hud- 
son's Bay Company, 140 ; claims 
of, against New France, 152; for- 
bids daughter's going to France, 
152; friendly influence used for 
Radisson, 180. 

Knight de la Jarretiere, Groseillers 
created a, 139. 



La Barre, governor of New France, 1 76. 

La Chesnaye, cited, 115 n., 131 n. ; 
backs Radisson in Northern expe- 
dition, 152-153 ; outcome of Rad- 
isson's dealings with, 175-176. 

Lake Assiniboel, 366. 

"Lake of the Castors," the (Lake 
Nipissing), 76 n., 106 n., 364. 

Lake Ontario, tribes about, 366. 

Lake Superior, exploration of, by 
Radisson, 89 ; explorer's second 
visit to, III-II2. 

Lamoignon, M. de, president of 
Company of Normandy, 355, 356, 

357- 
La Perouse, French admiral, 271. 
Larivicre, companion of Radisson and 

Groseillers, 105, 106-107. 
La Salle, 84 n., 85, 149, 151, 194. 



Lauzon, M. de, governor of Company 
of Normandy, 355-356, 368. 

I^ Valliere, 103. 

La Verendrye. See De la Verendrye. 

Ledyard, John, 308. 

Letters of Marie de P Incarnation, 
cited, 46 n., 58 n., 60 n., 63 n., 
81 n., 90 n., 96 n., 98 n., 139 n. 

Lewis, Meriwether, starts on expedi- 
tion to explore Missouri and 
Columbia rivers, 308-309 ; reaches 
villages of Mandan Indians, 311- 
313; first views the Rocky Moun- 
tains, 314-315 ; discovers the Great 
Falls of the Missouri, 317; nar- 
rowly escapes death from a bear, 
318-319; enters the Gates of the 
Rockies, 321 ; reaches sources of 
the Missouri, 322-323 ; makes 
friends with Snake Indians, 323- 
327 ; crosses Divide to the Clear- 
water River and travels down the 
Columbia, 327 ; arrival on Pacific 
Ocean, 327 ; winters at Fort Clat- 
sop (1805- 1806), 327-328; return 
trip by main stream of the Missouri, 
329; adventures with Minnetaree 
Indians, 329-331 ; arrival at St. 
Louis, 332 ; tribute to character 
and qualities of, 332-333. 

Liberte, traitor in Lewis and Clark's 
expedition, 311. 

Little Missouri, Lewis and Clark pass 
the, 313. 

" Little Sticks," region of, 253-254, 
259-260. 

London, Radisson's first visit to, 137- 
138. 

Long Sault, Rapids of, Dollard's 
battle at, 96-98, 19S. 

Lord Preston, Knglish envoy in 
France, 177, 180, iSi. 

Low, .\. P., fjuoted, 128 n., 146 n., 
149 n. 



376 



INDEX 



M 

Mackay, Alexander, Mackenzie's lieu- 
tenant, 288, 291, 292, 293, 296, 299. 

Mackenzie, Sir Alexander, early career 
of, 276; stationed at Fort Chipe- 
wyan, 276-277; exploration of Mac- 
kenzie River by, 280-285; crosses 
the Arctic Circle, 285; reaches Arc- 
tic Ocean, 285-286; returns up the 
Mackenzie to Fort Chipewyan, 286; 
exploration of Peace River by, 
288-294; discovers source of Peace 
River, 294; crosses the Divide and 
reaches head waters of Fraser River, 
294; travels down the Fraser, 294- 
298; adventures with Indians, 298- 
300; reaches the Pacific Ocean, 
302-303; return to Fort Chipewyan 
via Peace River, 304-305 ; later life, 
306. 

Mackenzie, Charles, 311. 

Mackenzie, Roderick, 278, 279. 

Mackenzie River, exploration of, 280- 
287, 296-302. 

Mandan Indians, bath of purification 
practised by, 14 n.; Radisson dis- 
covers the, 86, 88 ; De la Veren- 
drye's visit to, 222, 225-227; the 
younger De la Verendryes' second 
visit to, 230-231; Lewis and Clark 
at villages of, 311-313, 332. 

Manitoba, Radisson's explorations in, 
1 13-128. 

Marquette, Pere, 84 n. 

Martin, Abraham, Plains of Abraham 
named for, 45 n. 

Martin, Helen, Groseillers' first wife, 

45 n- 

Martiniere, plan of, to capture Radis- 
son for French, 188. 

Mascoutins, " people of the fire," 80, 
131 n., 364, 365 ; location of the, 
86 ; Radisson among the, lOO. 



Matonabbee, chief of Chipewyans, 
248-249; aid afforded Hearne by, 
256-263; massacre of Eskimo di- 
rected by, 264-265; suicide of, 272. 

Menard, Father, 105, 112. 

Messaiger, Father, 204, 205, 209. 

Miami Indians, location of the, 364. 

Michigan, Indian tribes in, 364. 

Michilimackinac, Island of, Radisson 
passes, 112; early headquarters of 
fur trade, 201 ; Indian tribes at, 364. 

Micmac Indians, the, 363. 

Minnesota, dispute as to discovery of 
eastern, 71 n. ; Radisson's explora- 
tions in, 89 ; Radisson may have 
wintered in, on second trip, 113. 

Minnetaree Indians, Lewis and the, 

329-331- 

Mississippi, Radisson discovers the 
Upper, 80-81. 

Mississippi Valley, Radisson first to 
explore the, 85-S9. 

Missouri, tribes of the, 86 ; De la 
Verendrye takes possession of the 
Upper, 225 ; Lewis and Clark ex- 
plore the, 313-323. 

Mistassini, Lake, Father Albanel at, 
146. 

Mistassini Indians, the, 363. 

Mohawk Indians, murder of French 
of Three Rivers by, 5 n., 19, 45 ; 
adoption of Radisson by a family 
of, 17 ; murder of three, by Radis- 
son and an Algonquin, 20 ; jealous 
as to French settlement among 
Onondagas, 47-48 ; siege of Onon- 
daga by, 55-59 ; outwitted by Rad- 
isson at Onondaga, 59-67 ; location 
of the, 364. 

Montagnais Indians, the, 363. 

Montana, punishment of Indians by 
scouts in, 25 n. 

Montmagny, M. de, governor in Can- 
ada, 353-354- 



INDEX 



377 



Monlreal, expedition for Onondaga 
leaves, 47 ; Iro(iuois scalp French- 
men at, 48; return of Ommdaga 
party, 66 ; De la Verendrye's de- 
parture from, 194-197; Indian tribes 
located in vicinity of, 363-3O4. 

Munck, explorations of, 134 n. 

N 
"Nation of the CIrand Rat," 131, 365. 
Nelson River, Radisson on the, 140, 

161, 164-167, 170-174, 179 n. 
Nemisco River, called the Rupert, 139. 
Nepigon, De la \'erendrye at, 201, 202. 
New York in 1653, 4I-42. 
New York Colonial Documents., 9 n. 
Nez Perces Indians, help given to 

Lewis and Clark by, 328. 
Nicolet, Jean, 68, 69. 
NicoUs, Colonel Richard, quoted, 

136 n. 
Nipissing, Lake, 76 n., 106 n., 364. 
Nipissinien Indians, the, 364. 
Northwest, the Great, discovery of, 

by Radisson, 80-85. 
Northwest Fur Company, the, 279, 

280, 287. 
Northwest Passage, reward of ;^20,ooo 

offered for discovery of, 278. 
Norton, Marie, 247, 270, 271-272. 
Norton, Moses, governor of Fort Prince 

of Wales, 244; character of, 246- 

247; death of, 269-270. 

O 

Ochagach, Indian hunter, 202. 
Octi)aton tribe of Indians, 131 n. 
Ojilnvay Indians, 115, 365. 
Oldmixon, John, cited, 92 n., 114 n., 

130 n., 147 n. 
Omaha Indians, Radisson's possible 

visit to, 86, 88. 
Omtou tribe of Indians, 131 n. 
Oneida Indians, the, 34, 364. 



( )nondaga, settlement at, 46 ; Iroquois 
conspiracy against, 46-48; garrison 
besieged at, 55-63 ; escape of French 
from, 64-67. 

Onondaga tribe, the, 34; Jesuit mis- 
sion among (1656), 46-47; treach- 
erous conduct of, toward Christian 
Hurons, 50-54. 

Orange. See Albany. 

Orimha, Radisson's Mohawk name, 16. 

Oudiette, Jean, 154 n. 

"Ouinipcg," Lake, 69, 71. 

Outanlouby Indians, the, 364. 



Pacific Ocean, Mackenzie's expedition 
reaches the, 302-303 ; Lewis and 
Clark's expedition reaches, 327. 

Papinachois Indians, the, 363. 

Parkman, Francis, cited, 5 n., 19 n., 
46 n., 87 n., 96 n. 

Pays cfen Haul, " Up-Country," de- 
fined, 201 n. 

Peace River, the, 281 ; exploration of, 
287; Mackenzie reaches the source 
of the, 294. 

Pemmican, defined, 223. 

" People of the Fire," the, Mascoutin 
Indians, 80 n., 86 n., 100, 131 n. 

Pictured Rocks of Lake Superior, the, 
112. 

Piescaret, Algonquin chief, 4. 

Pipe of peace, smoking the, 1 21-123. 

Plains of .\braham, named for Abra- 
ham Martin, 45 n. 

Poinsy, M. de, commander at St. 
Christopher, 353. 

Poissons Blancs (White Fish) Indians, 
the, 363. 

Poncet, Pere, 41. 
j Port Nelson, 140, 161-175, 182-186. 

Port Royal, Nova Scotia, Radisson and 
Groseillers at, 135. 
I Prince Maximilian, 226. 



378 



INDEX 



Prince Rupert, patron of French ex- 
plorers, 138-139, 180; first governor 
of Hudson's Bay Company, 140. 

Prisoners, treatment of, by Iroquois, 
i5-'6, 25-28, 54. 

Prudhomme, Mr. Justice, 88 n. 

Purification, bath of, Indian rite, 14, 
268. 



Quebec, Iroquois hostages for safety 
of Onondaga held at, 48, 55-56; 
celebration at, on return of Radis- 
son and Groseillers, 99; meeting of 
fur traders at (1676), 149; Indian 
tribes located about, 363. 



R 

Radisson, Pierre Esprit (the elder), 
6 n., 43 n. 

Radisson, Pierre Esprit, uncle of the 
explorer, 43 n. 

Radisson, Pierre Esprit, date and place 
of birth, 6; genealogy of, 6 n., 
43 n.; captured by Iroquois Indians, 
9; adopted into Mohawk tribe, 17; 
escape to Fort Orange (1653), 39- 
41 ; proof of Catholicism of, 41 n.; 
visits Europe and returns to Three 
Rivers (1654), 42-44; joins expedi- 
tion to Onondaga (1657), 47; be- 
sieged by Iroquois throughout win- 
ter, 55-64; saves the garrison and 
returns to Montreal, 65-67; goes 
on trapping and exploring trip to 
the West (1658), 73-74; reaches 
Lake Nipissing and Lake Huron, 
78; in winter quarters at Green Bay, 
79-80; crosses present state of Wis- 
consin and discovers Upper Missis- 
sippi, 80-85 ' explorations to the 
west and south, 86-89; i" Minne- 
sota and Manitoba, 89-91; en- 



counter with Iroquois at Long Sault 
of the Ottawa, 94-96; at scene of 
DoUard's fight of a week before, 
96-98; arrival at Quebec (1660), 
99; sets forth on voyage of discovery 
toward Hudson Bay (1661), 105; 
traverses Lake Superior, 111-112; 
builds fort and winters west of pres- 
ent Duluth, 113-116; visits the 
Sioux, 123-124; reaches Lake 
Winnipeg, 127; returns to Quebec 
(1663), 129; bad treatment by 
French officials, 130; goes to France 
to gain his rights, 133-134; ill- 
treatment, deception by Rochelle 
merchant, dealings with Captain 
Gillam of Boston, and visit to Bos- 
ton (1665), 134-136; goes to Eng- 
land, 137-138; marriage with Mary 
Kirke, 138; formation of Hudson's 
Bay Company (1670), 139-140; 
trading voyage to Port Nelson 
(1671), 140-141; recalled to Eng- 
land and poorly treated (1674- 
1675), 148; receives commission in 
French navy (1675-1676), 148; 
complications between wife's father 
and French government, 152; 
backed by La Chesnaye, engages in 
new expedition to Hudson Bay, 
152-153; returns to Quebec (1681) 
and sails to Hayes River (1682), 
153-158; troubles with English 
and Boston ships, 161-175; jealousy 
and lawsuits on return to Quebec, 
175-177; unsuccessfully presses 
claims in France, 179-180; com- 
missioned by Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, 1 81-182; sails to Hayes 
River and takes possession of Fort 
Bourbon and French furs (1684), 
182-185; return to England, 186- 
187; annual voyages to Hudson 
Bay for five years, 188; distrusted 



INDEX 



379 



on lireaking out of war with France, 
and neglect in old age, 188-189: 
consideration of character and ca- 
reer, 189-190. 

RaJisson's Relation, cited, 9 n., 46 n., 
63 n., 80 n., 81 n., 98 n., 99 n., 122, 
127, 163 n., 179; language used in, 
82; time of writing, 138. 

Ragueneau, Father Paul, 46 n., 47, 48, 
50. 51. 52. 53. 59 1-63 n. 

Rascal Village, Indian camp, 305. 

Red River, first white men on, 219. 

Rhythm as an Indian characteristic, 
160 n. 

Ricaree Indians, insolence of, to Lewis 
and Qark, 311-312. 

Robson, cited, 139, 140, 147, i6r, 166. 

Rochelle, Radisson's visit to, in 1654, 

43- 

Rocky Mountains, Radisson's nearest 
approach to the, 89; Pierre de la 
Verendrye reaches the, 233; Lewis's 
first view of the, 314-315; Lewis 
and Clark enter Gates of the, 321. 

Rouen, merchants of, interested in 
Canada trade, 352, 353, 357. 

Roy, J. Edmond, cited, 102 n. 

Roy, R., translations of documents, 

335- 
Rupert River, the Nemisco renamed 
the, 139. 



Sacajawea, squaw guide to Lewis and 

Clark, 312, 321, 326, 332. 
St. Louis, departure of Lewis and 

Clark's expedition from, 30S-309 ; 

return to, 332. 
Saint-Lusson, Sieur de, 142. 
Saint-Pierre, Legardeur de, 236-237. 
Saskatchewan River, exploration of, 

229. 
Sautaux Indians, the, 89-90, 92 n., 

131 n., 365. 



Scalp dance, the, 12, 14. 

Seneca Indians, the, 34, 55, 364. 

Sioux Indians, the, 69; Kadisson and 
the, 85, 88, 120-124; desire of, for 
firearms, 120, 122 ; location of the, 

365. 
Skull-crackers, Indian, defined, 25, 

121. 
Slave Lake, Mackenzie on, 282. 
Slave Lake Indians, the, 280, 2S2, 290. 
Smith, Donald (Lord Strathcoma), 

275-276. 
Snake Indians, Lewis and Clark make 

friends with, 323-326. 
Society of One Hundred. See Com- 
pany of One Hundred Associates. 
Songs, Indian, 159, 160. 
Sturgeons, Radisson's river of, 1 1 2. 
Suite, Benjamin, cited, 4, 5 n., 6 n., 

7 n., 19 n., 43 n., 68 n., 76 n., 86 n., 

99 n., 102 n., 139 n., 54 n. 



Tadoussac (Quebec), Company of, 

352. 
Talon, intendant of New France, 7 n., 

142-143, 357-358, 360, 367, 368. 
Tanguay, Abbe, 5 n., 19 n. 88 n. 
Tar bed, Mackenzie's discovery of a, 

in the Arctic, 2S6. 
Temiscamingue Indians, the, 364. 
Thousand Islands, massacre of Huron 

captives by Iroijuois at, 53-54. 
Three Forks of the Missouri, Lewis 

and Clark arrive at, 321. 
Three Rivers, population of, 7 n.; in 

1654, 44-45; De la Verendrye born 

at, 201 ; Indians of, 363. 
Touret, Eli Codefroy, French spy, 137. 
Torture, Indian methods of, 15-16, 

25-28, 54. 
Triwaille, define<l, 224. 
Tripe de roches, defined, 78. 



38o 



INDEX 



Verendrye. See De la Verendrye. 

Ville-Marie (Montreal), Indian tribes 
about, 363-364. 

Voorhis, Mrs. Julia Clark, Clark let- 
ters owned by, 312 n. 

W 

Wampum, significance to Indians, 17. 
War-cry, Indian, sounds representing 

the, II n. 
Waste, viewed by Indians as crime, 60. 
West Indies Company. See Company 

of the West Indies. 
Windsor, member of Lewis and 

Clark's expedition, 3 1 5-3 16. 



Winnipeg, Lake, first reports of, 

69, 71 ; Radisson arrives at, 127; 

rumours of a tide on, 216; De la 

Verendrye on, 216-218. 
Wisconsin, Radisson's travels in, 80- 

81, 89. 
Wolf Indians located at Three Rivers, 

363- 
Wyandotte Indians, the, 364. 



Yellowstone River, exploration of, by 
Lewis and Clark, 313, 329. 

York (Port Nelson), 140, 161-175, 
182-186. 

Young, Sir William, champions Rad- 
isson's cause, 180, 181, 188. 



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